Good lord what happened with the $12K claim?
I had one employee who started and of course I did not ask and she did not tell me that she was pregnant - she told me she was going to come back after the baby. She held her baby shower here. She came to get a check the day after she gave birth. Confirmed she was coming back. Called her 3 weeks, then 5 weeks after the birth - she confirmed she was coming back. Next thing I get a letter she was claiming unemployment. I jumped on that form so quick I burnt a hole in it - they denied her claim and told her that although having a child is a good reason not to work, she could not claim unemployment.
Then I get a call for a reference .....
By the way for those of you that have ever had to deal with reference requests, legally the only things you can say are employment dates and whether they are eligible for rehire. Period. Forewarned is forearmed..
agoodman said:
Good lord what happened with the $12K claim?
I had one employee who started and of course I did not ask and she did not tell me that she was pregnant - she told me she was going to come back after the baby. She held her baby shower here. She came to get a check the day after she gave birth. Confirmed she was coming back. Called her 3 weeks, then 5 weeks after the birth - she confirmed she was coming back. Next thing I get a letter she was claiming unemployment. I jumped on that form so quick I burnt a hole in it - they denied her claim and told her that although having a child is a good reason not to work, she could not claim unemployment.
Then I get a call for a reference .....
By the way for those of you that have ever had to deal with reference requests, legally the only things you can say are employment dates and whether they are eligible for rehire. Period. Forewarned is forearmed.
Someone got $12,000 in unemployment benefits. Who? We don't know. When? We don't know. We could pay the unemployment office $40/hour to do the research and tell us, but what then? We figured that somewhere along the way one of the owners claimed unemployment during the slow season. It all gets registered against the business name (buyer beware, which we weren't) and the NEXT business owner ends up with the higher unemployment insurance payments until the total amount is paid off. At the rate of about $18/week (WHEN we have an employee) this will take more than my lifetime to pay off.
In re the legality of stating employment dates, etc for references...that's not all you can legally say. You can SAY whatever you want as long as it is a fact. If the employee was late 3 days out of 5, you may state that to the next employer, if you have documented it. You may not construe the reasons for the lateness, 'He's a drunk, he's always late.' Unless, of course, the employee walked in with a beer in hand and threw up on your shoes on all of those days. Still, you're limited to the employee was late (fact) and that he had a beer in hand (fact) and that he threw up on your shoes (fact). You still don't know if he's a drunk or not or if he is always late for everything or just work.
I do know many large companies will have the HR dept be in control of any requests for info and they will generally only state that you worked there and were paid $x. That's not a legal requirement, it's a corporate policy.
I happily give rave reviews for an employee we had 2 years ago. Maybe she's awful today and that's why she puts me down as a reference. I leave that little discrepancy to the hiring manager to figure out. HERE she was a great employee.
