Will anyone ever give my DH another chance

[DesperateToHelpMyHudband]

Hi I have name changed for this.

Long story for background:

My husband is in his early 50's. We have been married 25 years and have 3 teenage daughters.

When my husband was a teenager he and some other boys were convicted for armed robbery and he spent 3 years in prison.

When he was released he was determined to turn his life around and after much searching he landed a roll in the finance department of a large company. He worked his way up over the years and became a manager and a well respected member of staff. He worked his socks off and never took any time off sick.

When he applied for the job they didn't ask him if he had a criminal record and he didn't declare it. Fast forward 30 years and because of new regulations in the industry his company decided to do a retrospective criminal record check. Before they could do that he disclosed it to the senior partner in the London office. They suspended him straight away and after deliberation by a committee in a different country that have never met him they decided to get rid of him with a small pay out.

This was six months ago and he cannot get another job. Nobody is giving him a chance. He has tried everything but no luck with anything at all.

It breaks my heart. He is a totally different person to that teenager all those years ago. He was such a loyal member of staff. He worked long hours and never took a day off sick for the first 20 years and even then only because he had to.

He would be an asset to any company but is he destined for the scrap heap?

He can't even get a manual labour job. I know people will say he should work for himself but doing what ?

Someone very close to me lost their professional job a year ago due to cuts and is now struggling in the same way. His problem is he gained all of his experience through hard work and tenacity but never took a degree.

It's heartbreaking to see and soul destroying for them. Never give up, personal references will go
a long way, if he's been senior he will have valuable management skills that are transferable to other industries.

Thank you IAmDisappeared.
I don't know what we are going to do. We still need to pay the mortgage and I have a job with low wages.

It just feels so unfair.

Can he change industry? The financial industry is so heavily regulated now it might not be possible to get a job in that industry any more.

He has tried to look outside the finance industry. He will take a job in any industry. He has even tried for lower paid jobs but no luck.

He is at the stage now where he is overly qualified for junior positions even if they would give him a chance but he's not even getting interviews.

He has signed up with loads of agencies which he has been truthful with because of precious experience but no luck.

Sorry previous experience. Typo

If he’s will to, I’d sell the story to a paper and then the jobs offers should come flooding in!!

‘Man who didn’t take a sick day for 20+years and has exemplary 30 year service sacked because of teenage conviction due to new financial laws’
Sort of thing!
Good luck, must be really hard for him and you both

Has he contacted ex-offenders charities and resources? There is a huge push to get ex offenders into paid work, obviously mostly targeted at those just leaving prison, but they might be able to help?

And has he spoken to an employment solicitor about the possibility of an unfair dismissal claim/higher payout?

I'm struggling to be sympathetic as no doubt the victims of armed robbery felt a lasting impact. The best thing for him to do is retrain to do something self employed where he wont need the same checks. Its shocking that he went into finance as someone with such a conviction and clearly his luck ran out when the new checks came in. I appreciate there will be a million different reasons for him to be 'changed' and having 'made a mistake' but ultimately he was convicted of a very serious crime and lucky he didnt end up with a long prison sentence or having killed someone had it gone wrong.

Could he do consultancy work or become self employed? Does he do any hobbies that he could make a living from?

I may be wrong I was under the impression that after a certain period of the conviction is spent and you no longer have to declare it.
I would suggest your husband checks this out, and if so, stops being quite so brutally honest.

Get him to look for jobs on LinkedIn. Get his profile set up to show he is looking for opportunities.

Many of the jobs posted have the recruiters name and number or email address so he can talk to them direct.

This means he can be proactive and upfront about the reason why he lost his job. I'm sure many companies couldn't care less about his past... he just needs to find them.

Also look on the Vercida job site. This job board is specifically set up for companies who don't discriminate, so he'll find jobs with companies with more empathy to his situation.

Good luck to your DH; he will get another job. But he needs to remember that the recruitment market has changed a lot since he last looked for a job. He needs to talk to recruiters. It's no good just sending off a cv and waiting. Get online. Be proactive.

Can he work for himself and become a consultant, or go contracting? I'm not sure what checks are done for temporary employees.

@blackcat the OPs DH has served his time and moved on.

What he did was dreadful, but he is reformed and isn't a threat to anyone.

His conviction is spent - in that it was so long ago that he no longer has to answer yes to the question "Do you have any criminal convictions which are not considered spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act"?

www.nacro.org.uk/resettlement-advice-service/support-for-individuals/disclosing-criminal-records/rehabilitation-offenders-act/#england

However, as others have pointed out, disclosure for some jobs in the financial services world means that they delve deeper and look at spent conditions too.

The person who said pursue for unfair dismissal - it's not just the conviction, it's the fact that the OP's husband lied about it. Unfair dismissal is a non-starter.

Maybe employment agency / temping work as a way of getting back into the workplace?

I echo the consultancy/ interim contracting if he can. Issues will be the Disclosure Barring, though I can't remember how far back it goes in terms of years.

Is there anything he can do online?

I agree about the spent convictions www.gov.uk/exoffenders-and-employment. He doesn’t have to say anything in most jobs.

The person who said pursue for unfair dismissal - it's not just the conviction, it's the fact that the OP's husband lied about it

Did he lie about it? If we are talking 30 years ago and working his way up from a junior position, it’s likely he never asked.

I don’t know the specifics but it’s very likely that financial services do have tighter regulations than other industries.

I agree with trying to be self employed instead but it can take a long time to become profitable and it doesn’t sound like they have the time for that.

I’m really sorry OP. Your DH has obviously turned his life around completely which is very difficult to do after a prison sentence.

^likely he was never asked

Thank you all for taking time to reply.

The conviction is definitely not spent.

He has looked into unfair dismissal and has also looked at consultancy work.

He has been very proactive in sending emails to people.

Not sure if his age has gone against him too.

We don't want to make the story public as we don't want our children to find out and we have also built a different life with friends who he would be ashamed for them to know as we would be the subject of gossip.

He really has tried everything possible. He has been to charities and researched thoroughly companies that have a ban the box policy.

His CV is definitely up to scratch as he used professionals in the City to help with write it and he has also created a LinkedIn profile.

Timpson is well known for hiring ex offenders. It’s part of their hiring policy.

www.timpson-group.co.uk/timpson-foundation/ex-offenders/

He didn't lie about it. He was never asked the question and back then a lot of companies didn't do checks.

It will depend on the type of background checks the company does. Financial services is much more tightly regulated, for example we wouldn't hire someone in finance if they had a CCJ against them.

If he looks outside the finance industry they might just do Standard checks and it won't come up. As it is spent he doesn't have to declare it. Often very small companies don't do proper background checks.

Sorry and just to say the regulating authority for that industry have said that they don't have a problem with him working for companies am who are regulated by them.

I think also the problem is a lot of companies are probably thinking if his own company didn't keep him with such an exemplary record then why should someone else employ him. But it really was down to a committee in the US who have never met him. The other partners in the form have kept in touch with him and are disgusted that he was let go.

The conviction is definitely not spent so it would come up and he does have to declare it.

I work with social enterprises. Lots of them are very keen to employ people who are marginalised in society and they typically have good pay and conditions. Search 'social enterprise' or 'social business' or 'b corp'. There should be a local association near you called CVC which may be able to link you in.