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Employment Screening

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A

ACG

Guest
state: georgia

I was recently laid off, and the only one in my group to be laid off. my relationship with my former boss was not good. I believe the layoff was used as an excuse to let me go. I have called back people at my job and verified that all my co-workers still work there. I did sign the severance agreement that included I would not sue. Also, needed to find out if I could have access to my employee file, or find some firm to call my former employer to find out if bad things are being said about me when I have to use them as a reference because they were my last employer?
also, need to know what kind of information are they allowed to give when an employer calls for a reference check? How can I gain access to my employee file. to find out what kind of information is being stored/filed by my past employer?

Thanks:confused:
 


Beth3

Senior Member
1. If you were selected for lay-off because you had a poor relationship with your boss, there is nothing illegal about that. When a company has to reduce staff, cutting employees based on "attitude" is a valid criteria.

2. Employers may give out any truthful information in a reference check they wish to share, which includes their honest opinions about your performance, behavior, disciplinary history, cooperation with your supervisor, etc., even if you don't agree with their opinions.

3. I don't know what GA statutes say about access to your personnel file. You can contact the GA Department of Labor on Monday and inquire, or if cbg (who is a regular poster here) responds to your question, s/he will be able to tell you.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Melissae - you are absolutely incorrect. There are no laws whatsoever that restrict an employer to providing only dates of employment and attendance history, or only answer yes or no to questions. I don't know where you formed that opinion or got that information but it's 100% wrong.

As an employer, I am free to provide my honest opinion of an employee's performance and behavior. If the individual routinely got into unwarranted tussles with co-workers and/or their supervisor, I can say that the employee was argumentative. That reflects my honest opinion based upon the employee's documentated and observed behavior.

I have 25 years of human resources generalist experience and am a VP of HR at a sizeable manufacturing company. I know what I'm talking about. You need to go back and hit the books.

By the way, most States have passed "hold harmless" referencing laws that indemnify the employer against lawsuits for providing references in good faith.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Please get your act together. NOBODY has remotely mentioned sharing "defamatory" information. Defamatory and malicious information provided in a reference does indeed expose the employer to liability. You have lept to unfounded conclusions based upon a lack of knowledge and an apparent inability to read simple declarative sentences.

Hold harmless does indeed cover opinions offered by the employer in good faith, particularly when backed up by factual information. You can rant all you want but you are still do not know what you are talking about.

Please do spend this week researching this topic which you sorely need to do and see if you can find a single statute or case law that requires an employer to stick to dates of hire, attendance history, and "yes or no" answers relative to eligibilty for rehire as you assert.

Since you are incapable of discussion without name calling (and you say I'm the idiot?), you have a lot more than employment law to learn.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Melissae, you are absolutely wrong. Good faith hold-harmless laws exist or are pending in 44 out of 50 states. If you would like to prove Beth and me wrong, please provide us with any Federal or state statute numbers that restricts an employer to dates of employment and attendance records. I see no reason why I should pay attention to someone who insults other posters who disagree with her, but refuses to back it up with facts.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Now that I'm back in the office, I can answer the poster's question about personnel file access. Unfortunately, GA does not require an employer to make the personnel file accessable to either current or former employees. It will be entirely up to the company whether they want to provide access or not.

GA Code Ann. 34-1-4 states, in summary, that an employer is protected from liability on the basis of any factual information on job performance or abilities or former employees, made at the request of employees or a prospective employee, including disclosures involving violation of law by the employee. It does not protect disclosures not made in good faith.
 

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