About: Bill Wright

Has your company decided yet whether it will conduct criminal background or credit checks? If you are already using that tool as part of your job screening process, are you keeping up with legal developments in every city, county or state where you do business to verify whether “ban the box” laws are being considered? Is your company a government contractor? If so, are you aware that 100 members of the U.S. Congress support legislation to apply “ban the box” to government contractors?

The background check landscape continues to evolve and change. Read full article

...

On April 16, 2015, the New York City Council passed the "Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act" which would amend the New York City Human Rights Law to prohibit employers from requesting or using an individual's consumer credit history in making hiring and employment decisions. The prohibition applies to all employment decisions, including those with respect to hiring; compensation; and terms, conditions and privileges of employment. Unlike recent "ban-the-box" proposed legislation, which generally restricts the consideration of an applicant's criminal history until some point after the initial application process, the bill prohibits consideration of credit history at any point, both during and subsequent to the hiring process. "Consumer credit history" is defined in the bill QUITE BROADLY to include an individual's credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, or payment history,...

On April 3, 2015, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an Executive Order that “bans the box” and prohibits Virginia agencies, boards, and commissions from asking questions about an applicant’s criminal history on employment applications. The growing “ban the box” movement encourages employers to remove any questions on their job applications that ask applicants to check a box or otherwise indicate if they have a criminal history.  Proponents of this movement believe the elimination of such questions will reduce employer discrimination on the basis of criminal history.  With the signing of McAuliffe’s Order, Virginia joins fourteen other states, the District of Columbia, and over 100 localities that have already enacted some type of “ban the box” measure.

Compliance is a very serious subject matter for both large and small companies that run employment and property management background checks.  Publix Supermarkets just made a $6.8 million dollar settlement. The lawsuit says Publix’s application process included an authorization for a background check, but says it “blatantly violated” an FCRA rule that requires businesses obtaining a consumer report for employment purposes to notify the applicant “in a document consisting solely of the disclosure.” http://www.theledger.com/article/20141028/NEWS/141029338/1410?Title=Publix-to-Pay-6-8-Million-in-Class-Action-Settlement  ...