Bermuda follows America's lead.

The US Supreme Court has ruled companies may be sued by ex-employees who accuse them of getting revenge through bad references or other retaliatory action.

Yesterday the Bermuda Employers' Council said it would be taking stock of the ruling.

Said BEC executive director Malcolm Dixon: "Obviously we will be looking into this and will be liaising or communicating with the Department of Immigration and Department of Labour to see what the position would be for employers.

"Once we liaise and find out where the Department of Immigration and Labour stand on this we would notify our membership accordingly.'' Nobody from the Department of Labour could be reached for comment yesterday.

The US ruling on job references has been reported by publisher Keith Forbes' website, Bermuda Online.

According to the report, the US court said a federal anti-discrimination law protecting current employees and job applicants from retaliation also applied to people who had left their jobs.

The Clinton administration reportedly argued that barring protection for former employees "would provide a perverse incentive for employers to fire employees who might bring claims'' under the law.

It would also allow "the threat of post-employment retaliation to deter victims of discrimination from complaining'' to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Employers were cautioned against making statements about past employees, the Bermuda Online report stated.

When asked for a job reference employers should only give the name, position and final date of work for past employees, it added.

Most US-owned and international companies based in Bermuda had already reportedly adopted, or were adopting, these precautionary measures -- and were limiting "references'' to these bare facts.

As there was no Employee's Protection Act in Bermuda, there was no legal requirement on the Island that companies must provide references to former employees, according to the Bermuda Online report.

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