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Letters

Letters: Staff dismissal register may hinder innocent applicants

by Personnel Today 19 May 2008
by Personnel Today 19 May 2008

I read with interest your article on the National Staff Dismissal Register (‘Dishonest employees to be exposed on national dismissal register‘, Personneltoday.com, 8 May). As far as I can see, it constitutes a worrying first step towards unfair hiring practices in British business.

The danger is that this could easily result in candidates being judged guilty until proven innocent, in stark contrast to the ethos of UK law. Reporting suspicions of dishonesty, rather than fact, could unfairly damage an employee’s long-term career prospects. It could lead to cases where applicants are unfairly tarred – especially where accusations arise as a result of personal or cultural issues that are unique to their previous organisation.

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It’s a dangerous first step, especially if the concept is rolled out to other industry sectors. We could find ourselves in a situation where skilled candidates are rejected based on unproven suspicion. This highlights that HR professionals should base their employment judgements on more than mere suspicion, and seek out the facts about candidates through diligent practices.

Allison Gray, HR recruitment, Badenoch & Clark

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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Personnel Today
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