Ntdwm but what can yiu do if you cannot get a previous employer give you a reference.

Friends been trying to speak to manager but company switchboard will not give number, nor extension, if a message is left, the manager does not callback.

Next step?

I was told by my old boss that you never give a bad reference, in place you just don't give one, he also told me you could get in trouble for giving a witness that wasn't true. I'd like to add he did give me a reference and this was a long time before I left but the nature of the work meant a lot of people passed through and he gave a lot of references.

If my old boss was correct then there's not a lot you can do if they won't give you one.

I would recommend sending a letter or if possible going to visit the site but obviously that depends what kind of place it is and why he/she left.

https://www.gov.uk/work-reference

I wrote my own using there headed paper, he was pissed that I left and refused to be reasonable, so I just put down on paper what the guy really thought of me and amazing he thought I was great

Cheers
David

Our company does not allow their staff to give company references. They can do personal ones, but the only one to come from the company is essentially a HR report (days sick, duration of work, final salary etc).

In my experience they usually go back to the next previous one

There is generally no legal obligation to give a reference. Exceptions may exist in the financial services industry. Rarely there can be a contractual obligation to do so. If there is a general policy of giving references and one is refused then that might give rise to a claim if the reason for the refusal was one of a growing list of prohibited reasons (Gender, race, whistle blowing etc). If a reference is provided then it must be "fair balanced and reasonable". It is for that reason that many ex-employers now stick to a bare factual reference. Does that help or confuse?