Bad reference
I'm looking for advice in terms of what I can do following and bad reference that was just false information by my current employer. I was approached to go for an interview for a company for EHS role (environmental health and safety) within a construction company.
The interview initial teams and in person interviews went well and I was offered the position. The company however requested that they talk to my current employer as they have a long standing working relationship.
I hadn't included him as a reference as I've been in the job only 4 months and have only seen my employer twice in person while in this role, this includes the interview. I work as a health and safety trainer on a part time basis for him. Initially told I'd have 3-4 days a week of work but never got more than 2 really.
While doing the interview for the new role I was asked if my current boss and I had any issues. I said no, and to the best of my knowledge the only things he might have had any issue with would be a sick day, I had a vomiting bug and 1 morning I had car troubles and wasn't sure if I would make my training session. I did get the car going in the end but was 30mins late, this one I knew he wasn't happy about but what can you do.
I had been clear in the interview about these and they said that's fine. I was offered the job but they wanted to talk to my current employer I said fine but I'd like to talk to him first out of courtesy. I rang him and told him about the job and who it was with. All was good and he wished me the best.
Also to make sure everyone was happy I had agreed with the new employer that I'd do a day or per week in the training job just to make sure everyone was kept sweet. This was all communicated to my training boss.
I was asked to start Monday but I said I still had dates for training scheduled this week and didn't want to leave him in the lurch. I worked in my training job on Monday in our centre and got my well wishes from the office staff all was good.
Tuesday morning I got a call from the recruitment agency that set up the new job telling me the offer was pulled off the back of the reference the training boss had provided. He basically told them I was
"unreliable" the sick day was an issue,
the car trouble was lies on my behalf,
apparently I was turning up to jobs 20+ minutes late, 4) training was being carried out to a low standard.
I sent him an email about this asking why he didn't bring any of this up with me if I was so bad. He said "we don't give "negative feedback" yes he does. As for the issues he told the new job, apart from the sick day and car trouble (which I had already brought up) it's all lies. I was always 10-15 minutes early to ensure I'd be set up and 30min early for one job at he's request, I would meet managers before and after the training to see if there was anything they wanted me to focus on and tell them how it went. All feedback forms were glowing reviews with no issues and no concerns were ever brought up. As for the standard of training I reached out to the companies that certified me ran them through what I do and they said that's all perfect. I even shadowed one of his trainers for a few weeks and he had previously revived me saying I'm good. I've been doing this for 10yrs. Also on the time I was sick that trainer was also out with the same bug I was meant to be shadowing him that day.
I have no idea why he decided to do this the only suspicion I have is that I had gotten some recertification through him and he must have taken offence to me leaving. He has done me out of a €50k job for no reason.
The job was never perfect I had a few issues with it.
if I was shadowing my wages would go down to minimum wage and back up to my €18 and hour when I carried out training and back down again when I was getting rectified
was promised 3-4 days a week but only got 1-2 and was told they were quiet. Sometimes I don't work for a week or more. But in the email he said he was withhold day as a result of my bad performance that I was never told about
I've been told the WRC might look at some of this but I should mainly go down a defamation route. If anyone can give me advice on how best to proceed or what I should be doing would be very much appreciated