California has implemented new regulations, effective October 1, 2023, that significantly change the employer criminal background check process for California applicants and employees. The following answers to ten frequently...more
On November 6, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a stay of the Emergency Temporary Standard issued this week by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The ETS would require...more
On June 25, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that provides additional guidance related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law that regulates the collection of consumers’ credit...more
7/23/2021
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Class Members ,
Credit Reporting Agencies ,
Credit Reports ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
TransUnion ,
TransUnion LLC v Ramirez
On May 28, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated the vaccination section (section K) of its “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.” The...more
6/1/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Confidential Information ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
GINA ,
Guidance Update ,
Incentives ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Rehabilitation Act ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Vaccinations
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated the activities in which a “fully vaccinated” individual can engage. These new guidelines apply in non-healthcare settings....more
On December 2, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it is revising its COVID-19 quarantine guidelines, offering an alternative to the prior blanket 14-day quarantine recommendation...more
Childcare is an essential component of any return-to-work plan. Without it, employees may assert that they are unable to return to work or may seek to continue to work remotely....more
On May 17, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a 60-page document entitled CDC Activities and Initiatives Supporting the COVID-19 Response and the President’s Plan for Opening America Up...more
The Ninth Circuit recently issued two mostly pro-employer federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) background check decisions that held:
..background check disclosures may contain some concise explanatory language, but...more
The recent spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States has caused employers to be increasingly concerned and uncertain regarding the future of their workforces. Below are some answers to frequently asked...more
3/9/2020
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Crisis Management ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
OSHA ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Risk Management ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workers' Compensation Claim
On August 6, 2019, in State of Texas v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) overstepped its limited rulemaking...more
8/9/2019
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Adverse Impact ,
Appeals ,
Business Necessity ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Criminal Records ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Guidance ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Applicants ,
Lack of Authority ,
National Origin Discrimination ,
Notice and Comment ,
Race Discrimination ,
Title VII
In Owens v. Crabtree, Opinion No. 5616 (January 16, 2019), the South Carolina Court of Appeals held that a company’s termination of an employee for using company devices, on company time, to oppose a local building project...more
The disclosure requirement of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) remains one of the most contentious and expensive litigation areas for employers. The case law from various federal district courts has been a mixed...more
2/7/2019
/ Background Checks ,
Best Management Practices ,
Class Action ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Application ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) ,
Job Applicants ,
Waiver of Liability
On September 24, 2018, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reaffirmed the importance of following its 2012 enforcement guidance on employer use of criminal history information - specifically the EEOC’s...more
On September 12, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interim final rule updating its A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act form, (“Summary of Rights”) which is required to be...more
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has become the second federal court of appeals to weigh in on an important legal issue for employers in defending against expensive, increasingly common Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)...more
8/15/2017
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Background Checks ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Credit Checks ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Standing ,
Time Warner
A new Philadelphia ordinance amending the City’s Fair Practices Act goes into effect on July 7, 2016. The amendment severely limits an employer’s ability to procure and use credit information on most applicants and employees...more
The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations has released the poster employers are required to display under the new amendments to Philadelphia’s “ban the box” law, the Fair Criminal Records Screening Standards Act. The...more
On February 16, 2016, the New York City Commission on Human Rights issued proposed rules related to the city’s Fair Chance Act (FCA)—the restrictive ban-the-box law that went into effect in October of 2015 and prohibits...more
As we previously reported, New York City’s Fair Chance Act (FCA) went into effect on October 27, 2015. On November 5, 2015, the New York City Commission on Human Rights (NYCCHR or Commission) issued long-anticipated guidance...more
11/13/2015
/ Conditional Offers ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Damages ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Exemptions ,
Fair Chance Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Rights ,
Job Applicants ,
Job Descriptions ,
Job Offers
As we previously reported in July and June, New York City recently passed the Fair Chance Act (FCA), which becomes effective on Tuesday, October 27, 2015, and is applicable to criminal background checks.
Among other...more
On June 10, 2015, the New York City Council passed the Fair Chance Act (Intro No. 318-A, 2014) by a vote of 45-to-5. The legislation prevents employers from inquiring about job applicants’ criminal arrests and convictions...more
6/15/2015
/ Background Checks ,
Ban the Box ,
City Councils ,
Commission on Human Rights ,
Conditional Job Offers ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Criminal Records ,
Employment Application ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Fair Chance Act ,
Faragher/Ellerth defense ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Job Ads ,
Job Applicants ,
Job Offers ,
New Legislation
As discussed in an earlier blog post, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — which now has the responsibility of enforcing the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a role previously held by the Federal Trade...more
Employers will be required to use updated forms as part of their background check process by January 1, 2013, as responsibility for interpreting the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) transfers from the Federal Trade...more