The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming) recently affirmed the dismissal of a race discrimination lawsuit against a union whose hiring hall refused to refer the plaintiff for laborer positions. Essentially, the Court said that the union was justified because the plaintiff had three no-rehire letters in his file from three separate ex-employers. His alleged "issues" included poor attendance, poor job performance, and insubordination, as well as abandoning a $40,000 Bobcat . . . while the motor was running.

Plaintiffs sure do crack me up sometimes.

I have no doubt that this guy's prospective victims employers were very grateful to the union, as well as to the three employer "guinea pigs" for providing honest information about his lousy work ethic and attitude.

But, you may be thinking, we can't provide information about an ex-employee. All we can do is provide dates of employment and positions held (aka Name, rank, and serial number)! Otherwise, we'll get sued!

Generally, I agree. Employers who provide negative reference information about former employees can be vulnerable to claims for defamation and retaliation (yes, the law says you can be liable for retaliation against a former employee as well as a current one), and under state anti-blacklisting statutes.