questions & answers

Question: I am currently working for a company, but I want to get a better job.I received a call from one place that would have given me more money, allowed me to go to school, and it even offered medical benefits, which I really need since I currently have none.I was supposed to start the following Tuesday, but unfortunatley my current boss did not want me to go and called the place I was pursuing and said some unappropriate things about me.What can I do

Answer:

An employer in Arizona has a right to provide information to potential employers regarding an employee. However, an employer may not blacklist an employee to prevent their obtaining employment to allow them to engage in a useful occupation. A.R.S. § 23-1361-1362 prohibits this type of behavior but does allow an employer to provide information to a requesting employer, or agents acting in the employer's behalf, regarding a person's education, training, experience, qualifications and job performance to be used for the purpose of evaluating the person for employment.

Your company may have an employment manual that requires that certain procedures be followed by your current boss when providing information to potential employers. This manual should be available through the company human resource department or you may have already been given a copy by your company. If these procedures were not followed then you may have recourse within the company to prevent this type of behavior occurring in the future.

A practical solution may be to contact the new employer and explain your problem. If you provide them with past copies of strong performance evaluations then they may reconsider their hiring decision. It is unclear from your question if you had already had been hired by the new employer or were just pursuing employment with the new company and the company made the decision not to hire you based on several factors. Your legal rights would be different depending on the specific facts of your case.

Lastly, if your boss purposely provided false information to the potential employer then you may have legal recourse against your current employer. If you believe this is the case or that you have been blacklisted then you may want to contact an attorney to discuss pursuing all of your legal rights. To find an attorney you may want to look at some of the resources available through the organizations list on this website. Additionlly, you may want to contact the Maricopa County Lawyer Referral Line, the Pima County Law Referral Line or the State Bar of Arizona Find a Lawyer Website to see if an attorney can assist you.