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Free Human Resource Information
Illinois
Employment Record Disclosure Act:
An Explanation |
by Geoffrey Glaser
Passed June 16, 1996, the Act provides that
an employer provides truthful written or verbal information, or
information that it believes in good faith is truthful, about a current or
former employee's job performance is presumed to be acting in good faith and
is immune from civil liability for the disclosure and the consequences of
the disclosure.
Accordingly, the law affords an employer
who provides a "good faith" and factual employment reference for a
current or former employee protection against defamation claims.
Employers providing "neutral
references" such as name, dates of employment, last job title and rates
of pay, can now give out an actual evaluation of job performance.
However, the information must be factual, accurate, provable and job-related
and provided in good faith in order to retain the immunity from suit. Any
employer disseminating false information remains at the mercy of a jury.
Prospective employers can, therefore, rely
on the information provided in a reference check to make a hiring or
not-to-hire decision. However, they still need to ask probing questions
during the process to determine fact from opinion and to obtain a clear
understanding of the terms used by that employer. For example, is "poor
performance" based on job-related considerations or is it a subjective
comment without substance? The hiring employer's decision is not necessarily
made easier by the Act.
Geoffrey Glaser is an HR attorney and
generalist with 25 years of experience and is a Human Resource Store
associate. You can access him through our legal hotline, which is included
in our package of Outsourced Human Resource Services, by calling us at
708-645-2530 24 hours daily.
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