Offered a job at my old work place but hr blocked my re hire

LegacyUser

So the issue is that while employed there in 2009 I was given a fiinal written warning over using a proxy bypass site to view a website I liked that had triggered a language filter on the company proxy (it was nothing illicit). After receiving the warning I decided to leave the company as it hadnt been a good fit for some time.

Fast forward to last month and an old boss there contacts me about a job opportunitiy he thinks I would be ideal for, so I say great, I liked working with him. Only when he contacts hr they claim I cannot be re-hired as I was given a final warning over suspeted credit card stealing. I was never made aware that this is what they suspected nor am I astronomically stupid enough to do such a thing.

Anyway i mostly dropped the issue as an annoyance but it irks me to no end. Given that it was only suspected on their end and theres no shred of proof to support their claim and that the incident is over 6 years old. Is there anything that can be done? Or should I just forget about it?

Lux23

I would ask them for the full details of what you are supposed to have done. Ireland is a small country and you never know what could be said about you.

Mrs OBumble

Yeah, I would drop the idea of working there again.

But there is a potential libel issue or something if they're saying you did something quite different to what you did. I'm no lawyer and this ain't legal advice but if they're telling lies over what you did you need to put a stop to that in general.

CatFromHue

potential reference issue?

Irish_Elect_Eng

I would be shocked if they engaged with you in any real conversation about what did or did not happen. You said that you left as a result of the fires warning, which you state was correct, that they did not fire you. As you left before the HR disciplinary process kicked in over the last warning, it looks bad, even if you were not aware of the pending second warning.

BTW, inappropriate use of company resources can be sometimes phrased/coded as theft of company resources, could it be that they have coded your internet usage as theft of company resources (Electricity, bandwidth/data fees, phone charges, etc..) This is sometime done to simplify the firing offence, everybody understands firing someone for stealing, but some people get confused over firing somebody over inappropriate internet use.

Personally, I would not kick the ant-hill. It seems that you have a good relationship with your previous boss, use him as your reference and move on.

However, if you do want to approach this, I would do so through your contact manager, if there has been a genuine error, he can resolve it internally with little fuss. If you rock up with a solicitors letter, your name will just get even more blackened as a troublemaker.

Best of Luck.

davo10

Op it would be very unusual for someone who was received a warning to reapply for a job at the same company, and I would imagine even more unusual for an employer to rehire an employee who they have already disciplined. Your friend may not have been aware of your disciplinary history but you probably should have politely declined the offer.

Having said that, the contract you previously worked under should outline disciplinary procedures and should indicate how long a warning stays on your work record. You heard about the new allegation second hand and as it's been 6 years and obviously has not effected your employment up to now (or you would have heard about it, presumably you didn't leave there with a glowing reference) then just forget about it and move on, they weren't a fit for you first time around, you are not a fit for them the second.

_Brian

Forget about it.
It's likely your file has been marked "not for rehire" in HR, we had the facility to do this one place I worked, only used it once.

Duckjob

puzzlinghr wrote: »

So the issue is that while employed there in 2009 I was given a fiinal written warning over using a proxy bypass site to view a website I liked that had triggered a language filter on the company proxy (it was nothing illicit). After receiving the warning I decided to leave the company as it hadnt been a good fit for some time.

Fast forward to last month and an old boss there contacts me about a job opportunitiy he thinks I would be ideal for, so I say great, I liked working with him. Only when he contacts hr they claim I cannot be re-hired as I was given a final warning over suspeted credit card stealing. I was never made aware that this is what they suspected nor am I astronomically stupid enough to do such a thing.

Anyway i mostly dropped the issue as an annoyance but it irks me to no end. Given that it was only suspected on their end and theres no shred of proof to support their claim and that the incident is over 6 years old. Is there anything that can be done? Or should I just forget about it?

A lot of things don't add up here:

1) You say you got a final written warning for using a proxy bypass site. They say it is was for suspected credit card stealing? A final written warning has to clearly state the reason(s) for its issue, so what was in the letter ?

2) If you got a final written warning, then you must have gotten a first written warning as well. What reasons were stated in that?

3) Is this truthfully the first time you heard about allegations of credit card stealing or did you hear something about this while you still worked there? (Was that part of your decision that they weren't a good "fit" for you?)

4) Credit card fraud is a criminal offense, so if you were suspected of this, presumably the gardai were called and the gardai would have some sort of investigation on record ?


If this is truthfully the first you have heard about allegations of credit card theft against you, and there is no proof or even a garda investigation then they are on very shaky ground legally. I would be informing them that you will be requesting a copy of your HR file from them under Data Protection and will be taking legal action over any libelous allegations found.

I have to say though it does sound there is a little more to the story that is not detailed in your OP. It just doesnt make sense as it is.

LegacyUser

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote:

I would be shocked if they engaged with you in any real conversation about what did or did not happen. You said that you left as a result of the fires warning, which you state was correct, that they did not fire you. As you left before the HR disciplinary process kicked in over the last warning, it looks bad, even if you were not aware of the pending second warning.

Just to clarify, the final written warning ran it's course and they elected not to fire me. I handed in my notice about a month later, but stayed on for 8 weeks to help conclude some large projects. But thanks for the points you raised.

DuckJob wrote:

1) You say you got a final written warning for using a proxy bypass site. They say it is was for suspected credit card stealing? A final written warning has to clearly state the reason(s) for its issue, so what was in the letter ?

The only thing listed in the Final Warning letter was the use of the bypass site which went against a security policy.

DuckJob wrote:

2) If you got a final written warning, then you must have gotten a first written warning as well. What reasons were stated in that?

I had two verbal warnings before this, one for not calling in sick till after noon. The other over an issue of burning the 80hrs over time I had accrued, it's a complicated one so I'll spare the details. The process at the time was two verbal then a written then you're out.

I'll be the first to say that I wasn't a model employee, I made a lot of mistakes. I was young and dumb and I've learned a lot since.

DuckJob wrote:

3) Is this truthfully the first time you heard about allegations of credit card stealing or did you hear something about this while you still worked there? (Was that part of your decision that they weren't a good "fit" for you?)

This was absolutely the first I've heard of these allegations, there was no mention of it by any party involved in the final warning meetings.

The bad fit was a direct manager located in Germany and a team leader that was more concerned with how others viewed the team than how the team was performing. So odd's of success in that role were slim.

DuckJob wrote:

4) Credit card fraud is a criminal offense, so if you were suspected of this, presumably the gardai were called and the gardai would have some sort of investigation on record ?

The company in question is a credit card acquirer so they deal with credit card fraud on an almost daily basis. I would often work with Mastercard on identifying possible fraudulent transactions and reasons for success etc. So I would guess that they didn't go near the Gardai until they had definitive proof, which wasn't present ofc. Note that nobody gets what they call "Clear Card" access (can see full card numbers) unless they move heaven and earth, I certainly didn't know anyone with it.

---

Thanks all for the responses, it does seem to be best forgotten about. At this stage my previous manager is looking out for new opportunities for me elsewhere and the bs on my record hasn't affected me thus far.