jobless with unfair dismissal case pending

LegacyUser

I hope I am posting in the right place.

I am going unreg for this. I am out of work and finding it hard to get a job. I have come close on a few occasions. I know there are many other like me but I have an unfair dismissal case pending against my previous employer (not going into details) and am worried that they are giving me a bad reference to put off potential employers.

I am getting so worried that I will never get another job at this stage and don't know what to do. Any advice?

Sleepy

Is there anyone in the company sympathetic towards you who'd give you a good reference?

If not, could you include references from prior employers / clients / people you've done business with?

The reference check is usually the last thing to be done in an employment situation so unless you're getting to final round interviews etc. before losing out you might want to look at other areas of your job seeking / interview technique etc.

Ireland's a very small place though so if it's known that you're currently engaged in an unfair dismissal case, it's fairly likely that it would cast your application under a poorer light than it may do otherwise.

You could get a friend to call up your former employer to ask for a reference to see what they're saying about you but anything said on the phone would be inadmissable in your case.

Nody

Also keep in mind that the former employer has the right to give a bad reference as long as they can back it up. So they would be perfectly fine to bring up that you're taking them to court for example which being legal will obviously not look good to a new employer.

As noted above though unless you've reached the stage where they ask for references then it may be something else. Also simply remove references from your CV and add "sent on request" and only bother if they are going to give you an offer (which you can then explain before giving that reference that there may be bad blood because of etc.).

LegacyUser

It had nothing to do with the standard of my work etc. It is a bullying case.

Otis Driftwood

Its illegal to give a bad reference.

What I mean is past employers cannot say

"employee X was crap at their job"

They can however answer questions such as

"on a scale of 1 to 10 rate employee Xs team work" and answer 1 which is obviously the same thing,just said differently.

Another way companies avoid this is that they will only give a letter of employment for past employees with the dates they were working there.

They cannot come out and directly slate someone as its basically libel,stupid law,I know,but its still the law.

jimoc

Is it okay for an employer to say in a reference :

'This person had specific performance targets to reach each month and consistently failed to meet them.'

Surely it can't count as slander or libel if it is actually the truth and is backupable.

who the fug

How small is the industry you work in?

LegacyUser

It was nothing to do with the quality of my work. It was bullying. It's a smallish industry but the company are known for being bad to work for.

gerrycollins

jimoc wrote: »

Is it okay for an employer to say in a reference :

'This person had specific performance targets to reach each month and consistently failed to meet them.'

Surely it can't count as slander or libel if it is actually the truth and is backupable.

so long as they can back up their claim its fully legal

Nody

nedtheshed wrote: »

Its illegal to give a bad reference.

...

They cannot come out and directly slate someone as its basically libel,stupid law,I know,but its still the law.

Those are two very different things. First of all yes, they can give you a bad reference and yes it is perfectly legal. All they need to do is to be able to back up their reference, the same also goes for a glowing reference where they can be sued by the hiring company if they lied and exagerrated to much.

In the end the only requirement is, can you back up what you claim in the reference? Not by word but with paper to show the performance etc. then it is fine to say it.

Anyway the easiest way to sink any candidate and be perfectly legal is to answer the final standard question "Would you hire this person again?" with a "No" or another classic, 10s of silence and then "Yes".

matt70iu

What worked for me after I was dismissed from a job a while back was to find someone in the company on your side and get them to vouch for you, works a treat. Best to bypass Hr, as when I was dismissed I asked them what sort of reference they would give me, and they said it would be "factual". Needless to say, I did not put them down as a reference:) Wish you the best of luck and I hope you get things sorted:)