[BC] Re: Blacklisting in Broadcast Engineering

[Paul Christensen]

> I believe that current HR policy still dictates that the job performance 
> rating or assessment of either a "good" or "bad" employee is never 
> released by a former employer to a third party, without a legal 
> requirement to do so.

That's been the view of most employment law attorneys for quite a long time. 
I think you would be hard-pressed to find any contemporary organization 
whose policy is to release any information beyond employment start and end 
dates.  Many employers will not release any information.

Under my past three employers, release of any employment information except 
through H.R. channels was strictly prohibited and created a cause for 
termination.  The reason has to do with prior case law where employers have 
been found guilty of defamation, even when the information presented is 
truthful.. This goes to the point discussed in another thread concerning the 
principle of defamation per se.

On the other hand, smaller employers and their personnel tend not to follow 
this logic and their action often creates a liability for money damages.

The use of so-called black-lists may be fine for use internal to the 
organization, but third-party publication of that information creates an 
extremely high degree of liability for the person communicating the 
information as well as the employer under the principles of agency and 
respondeat superior.

Paul


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Paul Christensen, CPBE, CBNT
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