[rightbyte]

Strange. Where I live it's common practice to ask former employers about a persons performance. I you have no prior work experience they would want to call your math theacher or army drill instructor.

In the US it's illegal? It's discrimation yes but isn't that the whole point of a recruitment process?

[BeetleB]

Not at all illegal, and is quite the norm to ask for references.

You can get sued for anything - it need not be illegal to be sued for it.

[cr0sh]

It's illegal in the US for the company or anyone representing the company to say anything more than that they worked for the company, and what they worked on.

They can't tell the person that the employee was fired, or anything like that.

But as noted - there are ways used to get around such things (that is, the laws of our country). Those laws exist because people were wrongly discriminated against by using such "references".

But if you have a reference to someone you worked with, and they are no longer employed by that company - then I'm pretty sure they can answer anything they wanted too (unless there's some kind of NDA they are still under after leaving the company). Because they don't represent the employer any longer, and are a personal reference - things become more casual.

[infinite8s]

That's not illegal. HR/legal just usually prohibits it because negative feedback could potentially be used in a discrimination lawsuit.