Can an employer in New York refuse to verify employment of a former employee?

Answer 1

Yes, they can. But the best way to handle this is for the previous employer to accurately state the exact dates of employment only. This is, unfortunately, the only defense a previous employer has against a defamation lawsuit in the event any false or even inaccurate information is disseminated by the employer. Many larger companies are actually paying outsourced agencies to handle this issue due to increased defamation lawsuits. Even though many states have specific laws allowing candid, explanatory and useful information about a previous employee to be used, if truthful, those laws do NOT protect the previous employer from a defamation lawsuit initiation by the former employee at any time, whether it is a plausible lawsuit or not. The best thing you can do as an individual is to procure a letter of reference from you previous employer prior to your departure from that job. Then, the next employer has only to verify that the reference is valid from the previous employer. As an employer myself, I can tell you that a complete information refusal from a previous employer throws out a big red flag about the applicant, so if you've done bad at your last job, you might want to specify arguable issues and the nature of the problem you had with the employer on your application. If the previous employer was a smaller company, I would also be concerned about verification of just dates employed, as this indicates an unwillingness to go into detail about the applicant, another big red flag.

Answer 2

Not without consequences when it is questioned under oath. Not under oath, there is less of an incentive not to omit to respond, except where doing so would be unlawful.

Employers often go no further than to verify the fact of a former employee's employment; that is, employers often decline to speak to any quality of the former employee's service in employment. This is done to avoid the potential for legal liability to the former employee for offenses such as defamation.

It can be helpful to separate from an employer on good terms socially; however, the legal aspects of the implications to an employer as consequences of the former employee's separation from employment are the same regardless, and these would inform the employer's acts and omissions as regards the former employee notwithstanding the former employee's separation on good terms socially from the employer. Problems resulting from these consequences can be limited and their parameters determined through ongoing contracts and agreements between the former employee and the former employer.

Answer 3

Yes