MrCane

I am 27 year old IT Administrator with Financial Company in Canary Wharf. I have been informed by HR that I'm to be let go at the end of May. I have been with them for last 3 years and before that I was employed as a contractor with a large multinational in Dublin. After reading the documentation on ACS website I have a bit of problem. My current employer has refused to give me a reference as has instructed rest of my team-mates not to write a reference.

I contacted my previous employers and the contract company will only provide a HR statement stating I was employed by them and placed at the client's site. I have talked to my manager who is still employed as a full time employee of the multinational. She is going to check with her HR department to see if she can write a employment statement for me. However she is not hopeful.

I have 5 years experience as IT Administrator which means I should be ok for Systems Manager ASCO 2231-11. I have a degree in Information Technology and Telecommunications along with MCSA in Windows 2000 & Windows 2003 Server. I have also just got my CCNA.

Is there any way for applying for the skills assessment with ACS without any references? Or am I just wasting my breath applying for skills assessment. I

Bermudashorts

It is perfectly normal for employers to refuse to give detailed statements. I have only ever worked for multinationals and they tend to have strict policy on this.

I am not in IT, but you simply cannot be the first person to have come across this. I am not in IT so it was not an issue at skills assessment stage but it was for the main visa application. I provided the bog standard reference that the employer was willing to provide and made a statutory declaration with the job details. I would suggest this is what you need to do.

infojami

1. You write your employment details, including designation, date of join, job descriptions etc on a page.

2. You must write a statutory declaration about your case, that your employer is reluctant to you. To make your statements more reliable, put some contact details of your colleagues or your reporting boss (they may not reluctant to you) including their visiting cards if available.

3. You may also put your salary statement, pay slip, salary increment letter or other official letters issued to you (promotion letter, training participation letter etc, etc).

Note: For ACS skill assessment, if your job description (your official designation may be different) is related to CSL, they prepare your experience docs to get CSL.

Bermudashorts

This probably would not be acceptable. Many multinationals in London would strictly prohibit collleagues from providing *anything* at all. This is because of the litigation culture in the UK now. OP needs to go down statutory declaration route.

MrCane

Thanks for the advice. I will submit statutory declarations explaining why I cannot supply references from employers.

Anybody know where I can view an example or template of a statutory declaration? I presume there is some standard as what they contain. Does it need to be co-signed by a lawyer etc?

Rosscarbery

I thought that under UK employment law an employer HAD to provide a "x was employed by this company as a y from --- to ---" type of "reference". Not the detail you want but better than nothing. I haven't done any employment law for a few years now though so maybe this has changed.

I would phone/e-mail Citizens Advice to check this.

Bermudashorts

No idea if it is law or not, but I would find it extraordinary if a multinational would not provide this.

OP to clarify, I was only suggesting you make a stat declaration to cover the job description. Not in place of a reference altogether, you should still try to get the bog standard reference as well.

MrCane

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody for their advice. My current employers have decided to provide standard HR reference. They are still preventing my boss from providing a detailed reference but will just have to provide a statutory declaration.

I'm still getting the run around from multinational and agency in Dublin. Each is saying it is up to the other to provide reference. As far as I'm concerned I was employed by the agency so it is up to them to provide it. When I asked them to provide it under Freedom of Information Act they wanted me to pay €150 which apparently is what Irish government charges to deal with FOI requests.