Unfair dismissal settled and employer reference provided

STEINER

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Person has legally settled for unfair dismissal over a redundancy issue and has elected not to be reinstated and moved on. Employee was exemplary in the job. The employer has provided a glowing detailed typed and signed reference on company headed paper. A potential new employer wants to phone the referee. I don't know what extra information from a reference viewpoint there is to get from a phonecall, as it is all on the written one. Just concerned that the old employer would badmouth the candidate, purely out of malice as they had to fork out compensation, which would of course totally contradict their written reference.

Any thoughts?
 
Many employers do not provide 'glowing detailed' references for employees anymore, regardless of how good or bad the employee was. Many employers provide a reference that states the facts of the job title, length of employment etc.

As the employer provided a good and detailed reference, there is no reason to believe that they will say any different on a call. It would reflect badly on the employer that they write one thing and then say something contrary.
 
I never give bad references; just stick to the facts of what they did and when they did it. If someone calls me I give honest answers, erring on the positive side. If a new employer hires them and it doesn't work out they have a year to get rid of them. It's not my place to influence that.
 
Employers would always seek a verbal reference if possible. A lot to be gleaned from tone, hesitancies etc.
 
Employers would always seek a verbal reference if possible. A lot to be gleaned from tone, hesitancies etc.

More and more companies only provide the bare minimum employment dates/role details now, and will not provide feedback outside that.

HR in our place have said they put little weight if any in verbal references as referees are selected by the candidate, and are often not who you really want to talk to (sometimes it's just a friend of the person pretending to have been their manager). If a prospective employee had issues with a previous manager, they're never going to select that person as a referee.
 
In any event, person got the job. No idea if the new employer rang the previous employer. Quick process really from a speculative CV application at the weekend, 2 interviews and job offer Wednesday.

It was a bit awkward though, being about 5 years with previous employer, person would need a reference from them.
 
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