Walked out of my job

The days of glowing references are gone any way.

Statements of employments are what I get and keep a copy in my email.

What goes around, can come around. So if you ever move up the food chain and own or partner your own eatery business, keep the experience in mind :)

It wouldn't be great for any business if a staff member just walked off the job, leaving you in a lurch.

It's always a good maxim in business and in life to treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself. Even if they are arseholes.

If they cut your hours, any reasonable manager would accept you give notice of a day or 2. They won't chase you but it's very unprofessional. Some industries are way smaller than you think.

For how long had you been employed by them ?

Was the change in hours/terms/status communicated in writing ?

Easily proven in a court of law. A manager saying "that's what happened" doesn't cut it. In a defamation case, if you're using truth as a defence, the onus of proof is on the defendant - the plaintiff doesn't have to prove the statement is false, the defendant has to prove it's true

How is it easily proven? In court:

• Manager says "OP walked out without notice, just like I said on my reference"
• OP says "That's not what happened"
• Judge says "Manager, you can't use the defence of truth unless you can prove your statement is true"

Note that the OP does not have to prove it's false. They don't have to prove they worked their notice, or that the manager said they could walk out without notice, or anything else. The manager has to provide the proof.

Now maybe the manager can do that. Maybe they have timesheets and emails and texts and contracts proving all that. But they better make sure they have their house in order before they give the negative reference.

What's more, truth is not an absolute defence in a defamation case. Hypothetical scenario: OP didn't walk off the job. Instead, after leaving their shift at the end of the day, they get in a car accident and end up in a coma for a month. After waking up, they inform their job about what happened, and let them know they won't be back as they will be in recovery. Six months later, they start applying for new jobs. Prospective employer contacts old job for a reference, and manager says "OP worked from us from X date to Y date. They left their position on Z date without working their notice period". That's a true statement, but the OP would absolutely have a case that they have been defamed (not saying they'd definitely win, but they'd certainly have a case)

Also, I think you're drastically under-estimating the willingness of some people to bring a case when there's a potential payout in the offing.