Hiring Discrimination/Blacklisting

[anonenigma]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MO
After many years of dedicated service to a university, my employment was terminated after I wrongfully received a poor performance review. The issue which caused the poor performance review was a quality control problem caused by an outside vendor. I was able to successfully resolve the issue in my final 2 weeks of employment, but my supervisor refused to amend my performance evaluation to reflect the truth. The truth is that the lab is suffering from a funding shortage. A graduate student will be coming into the lab from another country to continue my projects and his government will be paying his salary. The poor performance evaluation has prevented me from obtaining employment within any other department at the university and there seems to be no other employment opportunities locally in my field. Do I have any legal recourse to have my performance evaluation amended to reflect the truth?
Thank you in advance.

 

[cbg]

There are no laws addressing performance reviews; therefore, there are no laws that will force the employer to amend your review to what you want it to say.

 

[anonenigma]

The Human Resources Department screens all applications and forwards a select few to hiring managers. Whether justified or not, an unsatisfactory performance review prevents the application from being forwarded. From your answer, I assume that this policy is legal and there is no appeal process for this form of blacklisting even though I have witnesses and documentation to back up my claim that my job performance was not unsatisfactory.
What if you fear that your former supervisor is guilty of defamation of character when potential employers call for a job reference? Would sending the former supervisor a cease-and-desist letter be an advisable action?
Thanks.

 

[Hot Topic]

You haven't officially established that the employer was wrong and you were right. Others will offer to stand up for you but will often back down if they think doing so might jeopardize their own jobs.

You don't know what your former employer might say if called. He or she might give the caller your dates of employment and nothing else; therefore, a cease and desist order could be seen as "waving a red flag in front of the bull."

If you want advice on libel/slander, go to that forum and ask quincy. I think most people would agree that quincy is the expert on the subject.

 

[xylene]

The Human Resources Department screens all applications and forwards a select few to hiring managers. Whether justified or not, an unsatisfactory performance review prevents the application from being forwarded.

You need to consider that you are probably not going to be able to find a job within that same university and / or university system.

 

[anonenigma]

You haven't officially established that the employer was wrong and you were right. Others will offer to stand up for you but will often back down if they think doing so might jeopardize their own jobs.

You don't know what your former employer might say if called. He or she might give the caller your dates of employment and nothing else; therefore, a cease and desist order could be seen as "waving a red flag in front of the bull."

If you want advice on libel/slander, go to that forum and ask quincy. I think most people would agree that quincy is the expert on the subject.

Thanks. For what it's worth, here's some clarification:
After many years of dedicated service in a medical school research lab, my employment was terminated. My termination letter states that I was no longer able to carry out (or troubleshoot) a specific chemical synthesis which I had been doing successfully for more than 5 years. I was given two months notice to finish up one of my projects. During that time, I was able to determine that the problem with the chemical synthesis was a quality control problem with a crucial reagent provided by an outside vendor. I was able to successfully resolve the issue in my final 2 weeks of employment, (and even instituted a change in the synthesis which led to a much greater product yield), but my supervisor refused to continue my employment or to amend my termination letter to reflect the truth. The truth is that the lab is suffering from a funding shortage. A graduate student will be coming into the lab from another country to continue my projects, and his government will be paying his salary, saving my former supervisor a substantial amount of money. Ironically, my former supervisor praised my work performance on my final day of employment and gave me an expensive gift as a "token of (his) appreciation".
The termination letter also states that a named faculty member, (the lab manager who was my immediate supervisor), had lost confidence in my ability to perform experiments. The lab manager told me that this statement is not true and that she did not feel that my termination was justified. More importantly, the lab manager wrote a strong letter of recommendation for me.

I realize that an employer can terminate employment at will and that defamation of character may be impossible to prove. I suppose that I do not have any legal recourse, but I appreciate your consideration and advice.

 

[thepimpleprecha]

Question from a young uneducated person.

I work at a microbrew pub in Washington as a cook. I was hired on to work mornings almost 3 years ago. Six months ago i was told i would have to work nights in a completely different station at the restaurant if i wanted to keep my job. Forsaking many personal activities-many of which the reasons i only worked mornings-I complied.
Six months later, naturally I'm looking for a new job. A competing brew pub opened nearby and was hiring for the position I spent over 2 years working at. I went in for my first interview and was told it was a sure thing, that the job was mine if i wanted it (which i really did) and the only things left to do were to hammer out the details. I came back in for my final interview and was sat down by the General Manager. He then informed me that the owners of my current restaurant had made a deal with the owners of the new restaurant. The new restaurant had agreed not to hire any of the old restaurants employees for 6 months. Obviously the position will be filled by then.
This agreement affects all 100+ of my coworkers and none of us were told that by working there we were jepordizing our chances to work at a similar job.
Is there any legal recourse i can take? I feel like i've been unjustly blacklisted just for keeping a job in times of a recession.

 

[pattytx]

thepimpleprecha, please start your own thread. It's rude to hijack someone else's. Your situation is totally unrelated to the OP's.

 

[Hot Topic]

What an awful username.

You have intruded on a threat that's 4 months old and has nothing to do with your situation.