Questions about references...

[poorbuthappy]

Is it a legal requirement for references to be supplied?

Does the situation change if the company who is doing the asking is a charitable organisation?

If the last employer won't give a reference (good at job but left under a cloud, and they are absolutely useless at doing the references anyway so even if there was no cloud I doubt a reference would be forthcoming...) can the new company withdraw the job offer?? Even if 2 references can be supplied??

Does the law state it has to be the last employer?

Sorry for the all the questions, just trying to cover all bases!

[flowerybeanbag]

There is no specific legal obligation for any employer to provide references, no, although if references are provided for everyone normally, and/or it's a profession where references are particularly important, like childcare for example, then the employer might be making themselves vulnerable to related legal claims if they refuse altogether.

Very unusual to refuse completely though, normally an employer would provide a very basic confirmation of employment dates when requested by the new employer if there had been a problem.

What kind of organisation the new employer is is irrelevant.

If the new organisation says their offer of employment is conditional on two satisfactory references and says one of those must be the most recent employer, then yes they could withdraw the offer if they don't get the references they ask for.

Do you really think they would refuse to give a reference to the new employer if asked? That would be very unusual. What kind of job is it?

[poorbuthappy]

The job offer has come from chartered housing, admin and answering phones so I don't know if this would be 1 of those vunerable situations...

The old company is notorious locally (and nationally, were on bbc news not long ago for bad practices...1 of the loan brokering companies...) and has a very high turnover of staff, so I would imagine all their HR department do is reply to refernences! And they are just that sort of company who would not give a reference just to pee people off...also the reference is apparently about 10 pages long!

Yes, the offer letter did definitely state subject to references, but can't remember if it mentioned being the last employer...

I've advised person concerned to contact last employer directly just to get them to confirm if they are not going to reply, or if its in a pile waiting for someone to come back from hols. So at least we know for sure what we are dealing with.

Its a shame cos she's only 17, and was a bit naive and this job could have been the start of something good...

I'll get her to check stuff out tomorrow and report back - cheers!

[flowerybeanbag]

You mean the new employer has sent a 10 page form to fill in or something? Yes I imagine if the old employer is a bit rubbish generally they may not be too motivated to bother doing that, that's quite a big ask, and an HR department doing the references wouldn't be able to answer most of the questions anyway - they will have dates and other facts, not opinions.

Best bet is a basic simple confirmation of dates reference, maybe talk to the old employer first, find out how they're doing with the request, and if there's a problme, speak to the new employer and ask whether they would be happy with a basic factual reference instead.

[poorbuthappy]

Yes, the reference sent to the previous employers is very lengthly and detailed (according to the other referee who is struggling with it...).

Will definitely get her to ring old employer tomorrow just to confirm exactly where she stands, and ask about the factual basic reference.

As usual thank you Flowery!

[poorbuthappy]

Yes, the reference sent to the previous employers is very lengthly and detailed (according to the other referee who is struggling with it...).

Will definitely get her to ring old employer tomorrow just to confirm exactly where she stands, and ask about the factual basic reference.

As usual thank you Flowery!