Can an employer who sacked you tell any prospective employers of yours that you were sacked. A friend is in this position, and I think it is better that he resigns, so he will be able to tell a new company that he resigned. He seems to think they will not be able to disclose he was sacked, but I can't see the logic to this. Also his employer has rung up the golf course he goes to to check up if he was there on days when he was sick. He was pulling a fast one, but is an employer allowed to do this?
Your employer can refuse to give your friend a reference. The new employer will want to know why your friend thinks they refused this. So they will probably find out anyway.
With regards to the golf course - unfortunately I cannot see why he couldnt call the golf course. But...the golf course could and should have refused to give him a response.
frankly your friend was quite unwise (to current understandings of circumstances) and now wants to get off clean hm you know some people out there do actually work
Officially, your old employer can not give you a bad reference, but they can decline to give a reference at all, which in itself would put a prospective new employer off somewhat.
And I believe that HR departments do talk amongst themselves off the record as it were so its not advisable to try to cover up bad behaviour.
To resign would be better than being sacked but he will have to come up with a pretty plausable reason in a job interview.