Informing Next Employee

[thesshhh]

if a member of staff has caused problems (including costing them a small fortune) and behaved suspiciously, is the boss of that firm legally obliged to warn the boss of the next firm that employee moves to?

[fiction-factory]

I assume you mean the next employer. They would have to be careful . Some way use wording that encourages the recipient to read between the lines. I do wonder whether references mean anything as most just confirm the basics-" I confirm that X worked here from... to.."

[Peter Pedant]

No there is no duty of care towards a future employer
BUT
if he is asked for a reference then he would be liable for mis-statements ( hedley burke and heller)

that is if he says an employee on asking is good when he knows he is crap then he could be liable for losses caused by the crap employee in his new employ

american refs are
1) did he work for you
2) what was his sick record like
3) would you employ him again - and that is it

so it is different
does he have to offer info to the new employer - no
does he have to tell the truth in a reference - yes

as a Landlord - I have to pay attention to this for tenants references. I cant give them a good ref to get them to leave. - for the really terrible ones I just limit myself to 1,2,3 ( no I would not give another lease)

Hedley is here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedley_Byrne_%26_Co_Ltd_v_Heller_%26_Partners_Ltd

worth a read ....

[hc4361]

The usual way of doing it is to supply the basic, factual reference as described by FF and follow it up with an 'off the record' phone call where you can fill in the gaps

[fiction-factory]

Yes, and in a phone call there are ways of getting a point across without actually saying anything directly- e.g. long pauses, careful use of clearly evasive language.

[Peter Pedant]

hc I think this may be
'ringing up and putting in a good word for the new employee'

that is he has already sort of moved

we had an employee who caused chaos as she battled silent phone calls from another employee ( previously blameless)
and when she moved....we all drew breath and sat back
we heard eight weeks later or so
that new employee - she started having real problems with silent phone calls from a previously ....

and we had this discussion .......