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Thread: Confirming employee information to lenders

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    Confirming employee information to lenders

    Following on from some other Garnishee order threads that have been on the site for last few days, I would like to know what your opinions and policies are when you are asked to confirm employment of your staff.

    I am referring particularly to low level staff who whenever taking out a loan or getting some form of credit will a little too frequently, result in you, the employer being served with Garnishee orders a few years down the line. Not to mention the stress your staff member comes under due to debt and its costs, which often affects their work performance.

    So when the banks / loan sharks / stores phone and ask you to confirm if so and so is permanently employed with you, do you give them the info or do you have a policy that that information is confidential and hope that they don't get themselves into the debt trap?

    Views?

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    As far as I know when someone asks for a reference or confirming they work for you, you are obliged to give yes or no answers ....... nothing more.

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    Dave A (07-Nov-11)

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    I don't have a problem confirming employment.

    Quote Originally Posted by Kevinb View Post
    As far as I know when someone asks for a reference or confirming they work for you, you are obliged to give yes or no answers ....... nothing more.
    That's interesting. I've noticed that very few of these calls involve confirming remuneration nowadays.

    Generally they want to confirm employment, is it "permanent" employment, and since when - none of which I see as particularly harmful or invasive of privacy.

    When it comes to remuneration, I'll confirm or deny a figure if they give one.

    I also tend to make note of who is enquiring, and letting the employee concerned know I got the call - which can get interesting when it happens on days when the employee is supposed to be sick in bed with the flu
    Last edited by Dave A; 08-Nov-11 at 07:20 AM.

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    BusFact (08-Nov-11)

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    @ Dave .......... yes you can confirm things ......... as I said yes or no answers - but not give out information when asked it. The person phoning has to ask you if the employee is permanant - yes or no, they have to ask you if they earn such a figure - yes or no.

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    On a slightly different tangent but same subject, if you were considering employing someone would you ask them for details of any outstanding garnishee orders? Also would they be under any obligation to tell you this info?

    Reason I wonder is if an employee ends up with 30 or 40% of his/her salary garnisheed then they're less likely to value their employment and more likely to desert or leave at short notice if they're not taking home what they might consider sufficient renumeration. I've had very capable and valued employees leave at short notice and seek casual work purely to run from the garnishee orders against them.
    Last edited by AndyD; 08-Nov-11 at 01:11 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by AndyD View Post
    On a slightly different tangent but same subject, if you were considering employing someone would you ask them for details of any outstanding garnishee orders? Also would they be under any obligation to tell you this info?
    Could you deny them employment because they've got garnishee orders?

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    That's answering a question with a question which make me immediately suspicious of quicksand

    If you've got two potential employees shortlisted for a position with similar abilities, experience, qualifications and nothing else to separate one from the other then if one was in debt up to his eyeballs and you knew there were 3 or 4 garnishee orders on him then it could be the deciding factor.
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    Much like if one is HIV positive and the other isn't

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    The yes/no answers do help from the point of view of protecting the private info of the employee which I hadn't thought of before, so thanks for the tips.

    My current thought process is a little more selfish. I'm wanting to not tell the caller anything in the hope that the credit is not granted and so they stay out of the debt trap and I don't have to deal with multiple garnishee orders a year or two down the line.

    One side of me is saying that this is not ethical and I shouldn't try and control my staff like that. However I am currently sitting with garnishee orders for roughly 25% of my staff and I have one guy applying for a loan to a small loan crowd so that he can pay off a R3,5k bill to virgin mobile and have some spare cash on top of that. Now thats just out of the pan and into the fire in my view. And ultimately its going to become my problem.

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    @ Busfact ....... eish .......... see your point ........... 25% of your staff on garnishing orders !! Thats a lot. When I replied I was also referring to company's phoning other companies to find out about staff who have come for an interview and have used you as a reference. In this instance you have to be quite carefull of the info you part with.

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