Sorry to be a damp squib but this would in fact be illegal now. You cannot say anything derogatory about an employee even if they are useless. All very PC now Dave.
That's not quite true - the problem is that as an employer you owe a duty of care to your employee and a reference forms part of that duty of care. So if you breach that duty in providing a reference, you could be sued by the employee. So what you write in the reference has to be demonstrably fair (you have a duty to take reasonable care to ensure it is true, accurate and fair and that it is not misleading â a duty that is owed to both the employee and to the new employer). For negatives like the ones above, it may be very difficult to prove they are fair comments and if the employee fails to get a job because what you breached that duty, this can give the employee a cause of action. That means it is invariably safer to give no reference at all, which is a shame, but the idea is to protect the employee from vindictive employers who do not want the employee to leave or have a grudge. It's not "illegal" in the sense of being a criminal offence though (they could also sue you for defamation too). You are perfectly at liberty to write a reference like this, but you may find you have to cough up in order to do so. And I think it is amusing
O.K., it was wrong for me to use the word illegal, but as you freely admit Rob, you will end up in court if you say anything that is neither positive or neutral. We had an instance here at work a couple of years ago and it became an absolute minefield even though the ex-employee was a total tosspot. that was my point.
Sorry I wasn't trying to correct you, I was just trying to explain in detail the problem with references - it wasn't wrong to use the word illegal, just depends what you mean by that. If you're carrabuh it could mean "stocky" - i.e. that Hooper, he's illegal... You are absolutely right - even if an ex-employee is a total tosspot, unless you are 99% sure you can adequately verify everything in the reference you are giving, it is better to say nothing at all or you risk (a) the stress of being sued in court (civil not criminal) and (b) having to pay out if you lose.
You are fine Rob, we are in total agreement I think and i am pleased that you are not confusing me with another of our contributors
In my old job I had a phone call from a marketing company looking to employ an ex colleague of mine, he had applied for a job through an agency that we've worked with on many projects on the past, so I'm told Greg had quoted me down as one of his references along with my old boss who has moved on, so I give it the usual 'Greg's great, he never let's you down, versatile, never complains, his a team player and get's on with everyone'. Two months later I get a furious call from the head of the agency telling me that the relationship with this marketing company had practically been ruined by Greg before near enough slamming the phone down on me, so I decide to make a few phone calls to find out what happened, from week one Greg had a very quarrelsome relationship with a bolshie woman at this firm and after taking a two week stress induced break, bowled into the office and called this woman a fat ****ing **** in front of a whole floor worth of people who had turned up for a company meeting, making the woman cry uncontrollably to the point she starts hyper ventilating, needless to say my opinion in the local employment agency circuit is regarded as trustworthy as a crackhead house sitting during a two week break.
