According to a recent story from BusinessInsurance.com, employers should review their background check policies since many states are discussing plans to release a number of convicts from prison early in an effort to lessen jail overcrowding and make up for budget shortfalls.
For example, in California, MercuryNews.com reports that a three-judge federal panel has refused to delay a plan to release more than 40,000 inmates from the state’s overcrowded prison system. While an appeal of the decision is ongoing, the ultimate resolution of the issue remains uncertain. While ex-convicts should look for gainful employment instead of returning to a life of crime, employers should nevertheless perform thorough and extensive criminal background checks on each and every jobseeker. Even though violent felon are not expected to be released, BusinessInsurance.com suggests that employers should review company background check policies and decide what appropriate actions to take if an applicant has a criminal history on his or her background check.
In addition, according to the story, employers must contend with state laws limiting how they may use information found on criminal background checks concerning ex-convicts as well as concerns from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that background checks have a more harmful impact on minorities. With more criminals on the street looking for work, the more employers should be vigilant about doing pre-employment background checks on all applicants, the report in BusinessInsurance.com contends. However, the story also advises companies to take care when constructing or amending background check policies and make sure there is a justifiable business need to run background checks on applicants since the EEOC and the government do not want to see people with criminal records uniformly denied any job.
To this end, employers must comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requiring employers to first to get the approval from applicants for background checks and to notify applicants if the information uncovered in background checks can result in a negative employment decision, according to BusinessInsurance.com. The story also reports that each state has its own laws as to how criminal background checks may be used and they generally prohibit discrimination on the basis of criminal offenses, including the exclusion of applicants because of an arrest, as opposed to a conviction. While there is no blanket rule on conducting background checks, experts suggest employers exercise good judgment and use a more nuanced approach instead of an iron-clad policy that states felons will not be hired in order to avoid disparate impact lawsuits. On the other hand, employers may be accused of “negligent hiring” if an employee they hired with a history of violence on his or her criminal background check be charged with a workplace crime.
By Tom Ahearn
