So you lied on your CV: Here's what you need to know

Friday, 12 August 2022

Yuvaraj Krishnan is under investigation after allegedly using fake documents to secure a job at Middlemore Hospital. (Video first published August 12, 2022)

A doctor who allegedly manufactured his qualifications. An MP who has been stood down over revelations about his behaviour as a student.

If you’ve got anything in your past that you’re not particularly proud of – even if it’s on a slightly less headline-grabbing scale – reading the news this week might have left you feeling a little uncomfortable.

So what really happens if it’s discovered that you embellished your CV, or forgot to tell your boss about a conviction from your teens?

Alison Maelzer, a partner at law firm Hesketh Henry, says there’s no definite answer, and the approach may depend a lot on your job and employer.

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What were you asked at the outset?

Employers can only ask for information that is relevant.

When you took your job, you may have been asked questions about your qualifications and history. If you didn’t answer them correctly, you could have a problem.

“If you’re asked in a job application or in a job interview then you need to respond to that question. If you were asked whether you have a qualification, you need to answer that honestly,” Maelzer says.

“If you didn’t, there is the potential for terrible things to happen if you do happen to get employed. Your employer may allege that you misrepresented yourself and may look to terminate.”

That would usually be a summary dismissal, she said, although an employer should give an employee an opportunity to explain anything that had been discovered.

She said most employment agreements would require an applicant to declare that everything that was said was true and correct and that nothing had been left out that might alter the employer’s decision.

Some employers ask about convictions, while others ask about charges or pending proceedings.

Does it actually matter?

If the thing you lied, or forgot, about isn’t actually important to your job, that may save you.

Someone with a background like Sam Uffindell would face less scrutiny in a normal employment environment, Alison Maezler says.

Maelzer says the Privacy Act requires that people can only collect information about a person for a lawful reason.

If a potential employer was to ask for your full medical history, there would need to be a reason why it needed that information.

While an employer might be annoyed that you did not disclose something about your health, if it was not relevant then there may be no recourse.

“Even asking about criminal history may be too wide of a question depending on what you are employing someone for. If you’re employing an accountant then it’s relevant whether they have a criminal history because it could be an issue for their employment but it needs to be connected to the position they are applying for,” she said.

If you have a conviction that meets the criteria for the Clean Slate scheme you are not required to disclose this.

Do you have to be a good person to do your job?

Maelzer said she would not expect most people to need to declare whether they had been a bully at high school.

But she said there were situations where a role required a higher standard and people would be expected to be “squeaky clean” – as MPs ideally would be.

“In that situation you would want to dive into his or her reputation and ask all sorts of questions that with an employment situation an employer would not normally be interested in.”

She said there would be some jobs where a person’s character and reputation would be more important than in others. If you were a school principal or working with vulnerable people it might prompt different inquiries.

“If you were a retail assistant it probably wouldn’t matter if you used drugs as a teenager.”

Conduct outside work could result in dismissal, whether it was in the past or the present, but there had to be an impact on the employment or the employer for it to put a person’s job at risk.

What about bankruptcies, or being behind on some bills?

Maelzer said some employers conducted credit checks to look at a person’s creditworthiness and whether they had had issues with debt in the past.

But she said this should only be done when someone was going to be in a situation where they were handling money. “For the vast majority of people a credit check is not really relevant.”