May 2000

WIN AT WORK MONTHLY

A Community Service of DON D. SESSIONS, A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORP., Employee Rights Attorneys
	Win At Work CHECK YOUR REFERENCES Are bad references keeping you from getting hired? Don’t guess—find out for sure! Ask about your references from prospective employers who do not hire you. They may be eager to honestly blame their decision on others rather than themselves. Have a friend or a professional investigator call your former employer and ask for help in evaluating your resume and background. Your boss might discuss interpersonal relations, rehire status and performance history. You’ll probably get a candid response. Ask your employment agency to call in evaluating you for placement. Your former employer should be honest, especially if he or she realizes that an accurate evaluation benefits both sides to get you off the unemployment rolls and lower their contributions. If the reference is bad or misleading, write a letter demanding a neutral reference to avoid possible legal liability. Then later, check again. If it continues, see an attorney or face continued unemployment.		Employee Rights Update NEW EMPLOYEE FILE RIGHTS Employees now have more rights to request that any portion of an employee file be corrected, deleted or both. According to a new revision of Labor Code Section 1198.5, the request should be made in writing along with the reasons for the request. The written statement then becomes part of the file. The employer is then required to either grant the employee’s request or inform the employee of the decision to deny the request within thirty days of receiving it. Any refusal by the employer must include reasons and shall also become part of the file. Also, employers must remove adverse material from the personnel file of an employee, if it has not been used as part of an official act of discipline of the employee, within two years of discovery. Also, the former exception of public employees has been removed. The law will continue to require employers to allow employees to inspect their personnel files at reasonable times.
		Update on our attorneys - Stephen C. Kimball, as Chairman of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the Orange County Bar Association hosted its annual seminar, this year entitled, “Cutting Edge Issues All Employment Lawyers Must Know,” with Don D. Sessions as a concluding panelist. Patrick E. Turner spoke to high school students about legal careers on Law Day, a community service effort sponsored by the Orange County Bar Association.
Look for our answers to employees’ questions in the "Shop Talk" column of the Times’ Sunday Business Section or the Register’s "Business Monday" Section. Click here to add (or here to delete) your E-mail address to or from our monthly mailing list. For more employee rights information, click here for our website, job-law.com; here to order our book, Employee Rights in California; or contact our office directly at 23456 Madero, Suite 170, Mission Viejo, CA 92691, (949) 380-0900, (800) 774-7494, mailto:attorneys@job-law.com. The Win at Work portion of Win at Work Monthly is from our ongoing syndicated column appearing in Times/Mirror Publications (including Los Angeles Jobs and Orange County Jobs) and elsewhere. Win at Work Monthly is intended for general information and should not be construed as legal advice or opinion. Readers in need of legal advice should promptly retain the services of an attorney. ©2000 by Don D. Sessions.