Do you know what the company’s rules are about providing information during reference checks? The company I worked for only allowed us to verify start/end dates, salary and if the team member was eligible for rehire. They recently changed their policy so that all reference requests go through the HR dept. and previous managers are not allowed to respond to them or provide a written letter of recommendation.
As far as I know, there are no US laws as to what can and cannot be asked during a reference check. As for what information is illegal for a previous employer to give out are based upon EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) laws.
Employment References
It is illegal for an employer to give a negative or false employment reference (or refuse to give a reference) because of a person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Source
@chyna True; a previous employee could file a lawsuit for defamation of character. Unless they have proof, they aren’t going to win. The reason companies create their own internal rules on what can be shared during a reference check is to prevent a lawsuit. Lawsuits are time-consuming and expensive, even if the company wins.
As for the too many companies have been sued for not telling that an employee was bad, that’s a new one for me.