Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Inquiry
My situation is that I resigned from my last company due to company lied about their quality system in place. Being a quality manager I signed up to work in a ISO9000:2000 registered company. However, this company clearly has been paying the firm money not be audited. Objective evidence is available. I found many findings and the company�s ISO standard not being used since 2001, nonetheless, this company passed every audit with no findings!. The ramification of me working under these conditions is very high stress, many fire fights, many personnel issues, many hours overtime, ..etc.
So I was the internal whistle blower.. and I contacted this ISO registrar�s president, they came once and they did the same. Expensive luncheons and dinners. They did an audit of 15 minutes (2-days scheduled) and passed us with zero findings. When I pushed the issue with my boss, the president of the company, he started isolating me so I would quit. And I did.
So now, I am being told that when potential recruiters call this employer for employment reference check, they get an ear�s full of my �bad service and personality�.
DO you have any advise on these issues? thank you!!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Inquiry
Despite common belief, former employers may express their opinions of an ex-employee and state truthful facts. What they cannot do is state false facts that may tend to injure the ex-employee.
This is often hard to prove. One way to get evidence of the fact they are defaming you is to arrange to have someone pose as a prospective employer and have them as a witness as to what is said. DO NOT HAVE THIS CONVERSATION RECORDED! IT IS ILLEGAL TO DO SO WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE!
There are investigative agencies that check for bad references. You may wish to hire one to find out what is actually being said. Then have the statements evaluated by an employment law attorney.
Re: Inquiry
Advice? Yes, get legal counsel who can 'persuade' them to stop blackballing you, on threat of lawsuit. Without an attorney you will just be perceived as a 'whining' complainer that doesn't pose any threat. There are ways of proving what they are doing, and your attorny can then use that proof. Feel free to contact me if interested in doing it right.
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