Ex-employer has written a bad reference

[fatfingers]

Started a new job recently. I got called into my boss's office to discuss my reference. My ex-employer has written a really malicious reference that does not reflect my overall performance and is, in parts, not just biased and unfair but blatantly untrue. The woman who wrote this reference was not my line manager and has a reputation for being vindictive and trying to destroy people's careers if they cross her.

In particular, she has written "towards the end (of her employment) we had concerns about her performance". This is completely untrue and none of my employment records will verify this. During my time there, no one ever raised concerns about my performance (quite the opposite in fact - they kept giving me more work saying I was the only one competent enough to do it). Throughout my whole time with this employer, I constantly complained about my workload - it was far too high and I could not manage it. I was told there was no one else to do it. My ref basically says that my paperwork was poor, tasks had not been done as requested and they would not employ me again.

Luckily, my current employer is prepared to give me the benefit of the doubt and I have not lost my job. Given that I still have a job, am I entitled to take any sort of legal action against the woman who wrote this reference?

Yes, I believe so.

There are very strict rules about a negative reference and the one which springs to mind is that any concerns must have been raised with you and you given the chance to address them.

Can you get hold of your appraisals etc from your old job which show that at least part of the reference is unreasonable?

you can take action against them but you have to work out what you want to achieve. If it is just to make them stop and give you a fairer reference and you have to go through lawyers to achieve this you could find that the end gain is not worth the cost - the legal fees really mount up with something like this, and you have to pay your side. The only gain you would get from court would be that they would have to promise to right something fairer because you have not suffered any loss of revenue or anything because of their actions.

I would suggest you drop a strongly worded letter to their head of HR, telling them that they have legal obligations to provide a fair reference and that you would like them to confirm that they will in future write fair references that reflect the appraisals given during your employment. Then see what comes back from them and take it from there.

You can take action for unfair references, but realistically only in a tribunal if you are talking discrimination/victimination (so sexism, racism, etc or because you exercised rights like maternity leave). Otherwise it's going to be difficult.

You need to write to HR like Squiffy suggested.

Fwiw, my employer also let me know that my previous boss had written a bad reference, and (god bless him) he said he could tell it was sour grapes and that it was very unprofessional of them. I had been truthful with them though and they knew I left because my previous manager had been bullying me, so the reference came as no surprise.
Just do your job well. They will think no more of the reference. I wouldn't persue it, but I would quietly fume.

Thanks for your replies.

Boobooglass - sorry to hear you have experienced the same thing. My current employers were lovely too and said they were happy to put that reference to one side because (luckily) I had already started the new job and was doing well. The trouble is that my line of work involves vulnerable people so anything that suggests you are incompetent is taken very seriously. This type of reference could finish my whole career.

My aim is just to stop them from doing this again and for the woman who wrote this to be brought to account (I believe she has done this without the knowledge of anyone else and literally just written whatever she wants - she hasn't even got my length of service correct). I have been advised by my current HR manager to complain to her boss but tbh I have no faith in him because he allows her complete control and supports her bullying and intimidatory tactics because they achieve results on paper.

Anyway, thank you all for your advice. I will put legal action out of my mind now and just focus on complaining and trying to ensure they can't write anything like this again.