referances

[milesy]

I recently left the royal mail under a cloud which i'm currently fighting for unfair dismissal in a tribunal. since leaving ive applied for numerous and forunatly got myself one 2 weeks ago. however before this one came along i applied for a well known gas company and gave royal mail as a referance i also explained in my interview that id been sacked for gross misconduct and was currently in the process of a tribunal claim. fine they said but we will still need a referance from them seeing as id worked there for 7 years. now to my surprise the gas company rang me up a few weeks later saying that id not got the job and that the referance said id been dismissed for my sick record which is completly different to what i said. i asked them to send me a copy of the reference under the freedom of information act which ive heard you can do. i left it a couple of weeks and it still hadn't arrive so i rang the gas company about it and they said unfortnatley been destroyed. can i ring royal mail hr and request a copy as i think it will go down like a lead balloon in my tribunal. cheers for any info in advance!

[Terry Butcher]

I would phone HR and request A copy (notice i didn't say another?), try to keep quiet about why you need it as they may find an excuse not to send it if they know why you really want it. Act like it's the first one, they will likely send it to you without checking their records.

On a side note, i requested my line manager to write me a reference last month as i was planning on leaving, he got back to me a few days later and said he couldn't write one as he doesn't know about my conduct on other sectors in the office. It was fairly urgent, too. I had to phone up HR and they sent a reference out, I knew it would be very generic but i was shocked with what i actually got: It basically stated my name and confirmed my duration at Royal Mail Letters...that's it! . Absolutely nothing there to persaude a future employer to, well, employ me!

Wasn't worth the paper it was written on!

[La Poste]

This is a very good read for someone in your position.
http://etclaims.co.uk/2008/07/bad-refer ... bout-them/
Just make sure you keep a record of any losses you think you have suffered due to a misleading reference.
Generally Royal mail will only send a very limited reference for fear of being sued for sending a misleading one.
It's the same with most big companies now I believe.

[milesy]

cheer's guys i couldnt believe it at first ! sacked me for one thing and said i was sacked for another! i then thought about it and realised that this is after all the royal mail!

[fmrPOSTIE]

Something fishy here.

Royal Mail wont give the company a reference until they've sent it to you and you have to sign a document to say they can release the reference.

So what happened?

[andy2007]

I didn't know that. But what happens if you disagree with the reference?
Who gets the final say?

[La Poste]

Something fishy here.
Royal Mail wont give the company a reference until they've sent it to you and you have to sign a document to say they can release the reference.

Where did you get this piece of information from?

[milesy]

they did send me a letter but it didn't show me what was in their referance. it just asked me to sign it if i agreed for them to provide one.

[fmrPOSTIE]

It is HR Policy.

They will not under any cirumstance issue a reference (its not a reference, merely dates to/from and reason for leaving) untill u sign the reply slip then once they have your agreement they'll let the company see. You cant disagree with the reference because all it gives is "Reason for Leaving" does not explain the backgroud. Everything Royal Mail gives out - you get to see beforehand - its virtually nothing anyway - just confirmation of employment.

So I dont understand what the OP is trying to say?

[fmrPOSTIE]

they did send me a letter but it didn't show me what was in their referance.

They dont send a reference! They send the company what they sent you ? do you get it now? It cos u were sacked! Simple.

[milesy]

so why when i was dismissed for gross misconduct which i told my prospective employer in my interview why did the prospective employer i was applying to join get back to me saying that the reason giving for leaving by the royal mail was completly different to what i told them? they said sickness was the reason given by the royal mail!!! that is what i was getting at fmrpostie. and there was nothing in that letter sent to me with sickness or any other reason for leaving on it!

[fmrPOSTIE]

Milesy - OK well all I can say is RM HR are on seriously dodgy ground here - But what did your letter say as the reason for leaving?

[milesy]

it didn't say anything. all it was was a letter asking me to sign and return if i agreed for them to provide a referance. attached to this letter was a a form from the company applied for with boxes to tick and and a box to add comments in.

[fmrPOSTIE]

You should have got a letter from Royal Mail HR (Bristol Shared Services) called a 'Confirmation of Employment'.

On this it will state:

Dates To/From
Postal Grade, Location and unit
Reason For Leaving

???

[post_bitch]

wtf so references dont even include days taken off sick??

so is there really any reason not to play the holiday sick system?

FFS