Information, Please

How to give useful job references without getting into hot water

Sometimes it seems you can't do anything without exposing yourself to a lawsuit. In recent years, for example, many companies have become very cautious about giving unfavorable job references for fear of getting slapped with a defamation claim or other legal problem. When successful, these suits may entitle the employee to collect substantial punitive damage awards as well as lost wages, benefits, and the like. Even when unsuccessful, companies end up paying a tidy sum in time, energy, and cash to defend themselves.

To be sure, not every negative job reference is grist for a successful defamation suit. If this were the case, few employers would be willing to verify employee information, and it would be hard for employers to identify good people. Probably all employees would pay a price through lower starting pay or contracts with more restrictive termination policies.

What, then, is defamation? It's saying, writing, or otherwise communicating any untrue and derogatory statement that may harm a person's reputation. Usually, this must be to a third person -- say, one of your current employees or another employer. It doesn't matter who the third persons are, as long as they understand what you're saying.

In one case, for example, Robert Jones, a district sales manager for the pharmaceutical maker Parke, Davis & Co., gave a bad reference about former salesman Neil Stuempges to headhunter Robert Hammer. Jones described Stuempges as a lousy salesman. He was purportedly lazy and hard to motivate. Stuempges, Jones asserted, just didn't belong in sales. All this killed whatever interest Hammer had in finding a job for Stuempges.

Without income for almost a year, Stuempges sued Park, Davis for defamation. At the trial, he showed the many performance commendations he'd received during his 16 years with the company. He explained that he had helped train younger salespeople, and he blamed his de-parture on a dispute he'd had with Jones over sales strat-egy. The jury believed him, and he was awarded $37,750, including $10,000 for punitive damages.

Park, Davis's experience doesn't mean that when it comes to answering requests for job references, you and your staff have to clam up. Instead, you can cooperate and at the same time protect yourself in two ways. First, tell the truth. Provide an honest, specific evaluation of a former employee's work and abilities. Second, communicate only with someone who has a need to know. In legal lingo, most states allow an employer who is acting in good faith a "qualified privilege" to say things that would otherwise be considered defamatory. But you can lose this protection by providing more information than a prospective employer needs to satisfy its legitimate business interests, or by communicating information to people who don't need to know it at all.

You will also lose the privilege's protection if a former employee can prove you acted maliciously: you provided false information and intended harm; or you recklessly provided false information -- you didn't care whether it was accurate or not.

A nurse who had been with the public-health department in Flint, Mich., tried to bring such a case against the department. It had provided a job reference for a former employee, Victoria Wynn, that said she was disgruntled most of the time . . . didn't really apply herself . . . was eager to get on the bandwagon if trouble existed. At least one prospective employer refused to hire Wynn, in part because of this reference, so she sued the health department. She claimed the reference was a malicious swipe resulting from a personality conflict with her former supervisor.

In court, Wynn couldn't demonstrate that the reference was inaccurate. No one at the health department remembered any hostile incidents between Wynn and her supervisor. Nor did anyone report evidence that the supervisor held a grudge that might be an ulterior motive for the negative reference. Wynn lost her case and was ordered to pay the health department's court costs.

You can also be hit with a defamation claim if you handle job references carelessly. After eight years with the FBI, Barry Quinones left for family and health reasons. He declined a transfer and instead applied for jobs with law-enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania and New York. All turned him down. When Quinones discovered that the FBI was telling prospective employers he was incompetent, he sued.

In court, he showed that while he was with the FBI, he'd been promoted several times and had received commendations for his performance. It turned out the FBI simply had inaccurate files. Although the bureau hadn't intended to harm Quinones, the court found it was liable for defamation.

If you mishandle job references, other issues besides defamation can be involved. For example, a bad reference, if untrue, can amount to intentional interference with a former employee's prospective "business relations." In some states, you could be liable for actual losses the employee suffers, as well as punitive damages.

When Joseph Geyer applied for a job as a security assistant with Sears, Roebuck & Co., he listed Miley Security Service Inc. as a reference. His former boss, John Steinbronn, sent Sears a letter accusing Geyer, among other things, of being incompetent, drinking on the job, using a company car without permission, and forging checks. Sears withdrew its offer.

In the resulting litigation, Geyer persuaded a jury that Steinbronn's most serious claims were false. The court ruled that Steinbronn was guilty of defamation, and also that he intentionally and impermissibly interfered with Geyer's business relationship with Sears. Furthermore, the deterioration of Geyer's marriage could be partially blamed on Steinbronn's false charges. Geyer was awarded $100,000 for lost wages and expenses, plus $50,000 in punitive damages; his wife was awarded $35,000 for harm to their marriage.

You may be found to have violated federal or state antidiscrimination laws if a former employee can show that a bad reference was motivated by bias against a protected minority. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects former employees against discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Other antidiscrimination laws proscribe discrimination against people because of their age, marital status, sexual preference, or handicaps. Similarly, you can be held liable if a bad reference is shown to be retaliation against an employee who charges you with discrimination.

To avoid running afoul of the discrimination laws, it's important to apply whatever policy you develop consistently. For example, if you have a policy of confirming only dates of employment and job title, but frequently provide favorable references for management employees, you could create the appearance of discrimination if your management staff happens to be mostly male, while other ranks within your organization are filled primarily by women -- demographics that have been the pattern in the retail trade. You would be treating a protected minority less favorably than others, even though you didn't intend to.