References

A. No. In general, your employer is not obliged to provide a reference, although there are special rules for specific jobs in some sectors such as financial services. If your employer gives you a reference, there is a legal duty to ensure it is true, accurate, fair and not misleading.

A reference doesn’t have to be full and comprehensive. Neither does it have to be good, as long as it is true, accurate, fair and not misleading.

Your employer is likely to break the law if they refuse you a reference because you have made a claim of discrimination or supported someone else’s claim. This would be victimisation.

If you are organising to leave your job under a negotiated settlement to avoid dismissal, you may be able to agree the reference wording with your employer as a term of your settlement package.

In practice, nowadays, many employers only provide standardised references which usually record the name of the employer, details of roles held and time spent in each role.