Tuesday Q&As

13.6.23

• Is it legal to refuse a reference?

• Commission pay and sickness absence

• Can you help me calculate my daily rest entitlement?

• Redundancy and a pay cut! Is it fair?

• Sickness and holiday. Can I claim my holiday back?

• Deductions from pay for breakages. Can an employer do this?

• Penalty clauses and damage to vehicles

• Working time and pay for getting ready

• Less pay for more work. Is that fair?

• What happens if I don’t give enough notice?

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Is it legal to refuse a reference?

Q. I'm about to hand my notice in and need two references. Unfortunately nobody will give me one as apparently its against company policy. Is this actually legal? Thank you.

A. I presume the two references for your new job? Nobody can be forced to give a reference and many companies now refuse to give references, except to confirm start and finish dates of employment. We live in a litigious society, so it’s not surprising businesses are reluctant to give anything more for fear of ending up in court for providing misleading information.

Note: There are a couple of regulated sectors where references must be provided but in the scheme of things this is a rarity

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Commission pay and sickness absence

Q. I’m really struggling with anxiety atm, I’ve got crippling migraines most days. I can’t focus, I’m having to sleep off migraines during the day then I end up trying to work back time in the evenings hence the 2am email. I don’t sleep at night for over thinking then sleep in, in the morning. My work is starting to slip and I know my colleagues and management are beginning to notice.