How to Conduct Criminal Background Checks the Right Way
The Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers (FCOE), which took effect on September 3, 2024, imposes several new compliance requirements regarding the consideration of criminal history in employment decisions....more
Starting after Labor Day, employers with jobs located in the unincorporated areas of the County of Los Angeles, including work-from-home and hybrid positions, must comply with the County’s fair chance hiring ordinance. The...more
Since California’s enactment of the Fair Chance Act (“Act”) over six years ago, California’s private and county employers with five or more employees have become well-acquainted with the Act’s general prohibition of employers...more
Federal Agency Charges Property Management Companies With Revoking Job Offer From Woman With Breast Cancer - BOSTON – Atlantic Properties Management Corporation and its affiliate, Diversified Funding, Inc., property...more
Comedian and actor, Micah “Katt” Williams has officially broken the internet. Katt’s viral interview on former NFL star Shannon Sharpe’s, podcast, “Club Shay Shay,” has been viewed over 50 million times (and counting)...more
The Human Rights Tribunal of Alberta recently determined that an employer did not discriminate against a job candidate by revoking an offer of employment after the job candidate failed a pre-employment drug test....more
New York has enacted the Clean Slate Act, effective November 16, 2024, which will provide for the automatic sealing of certain criminal history records. Upon sealing, the records will be unavailable to most employers in a...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On November 16, 2023, New York became the 12th state to enact “Clean Slate” legislation, which allows certain criminal records to be sealed after an individual is sentenced or released from incarceration,...more
On October 1, 2023, changes to the Fair Employment and Housing Act regulations that govern how employers can use information about criminal history in employment decisions go into effect, modifying California Code of...more
Employers need to be vigilant about staying compliant with their hiring practices and background screening. For most organizations, this means not only knowing, but understanding, new regulations and rules coming down from...more
California employers will need to make changes to their background check and criminal history review process thanks to new Fair Chance Act regulations taking effect October 1. You should begin to prepare now for these new...more
The California Office of Administrative Law recently approved the Civil Rights Council’s amendments to regulations in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) that govern employer inquiries into and consideration of a job...more
New regulations effective October 1, 2023, will impact how employers may consider criminal history in employment decisions. The Fair Chance Act (FCA) prohibits California employers with five or more employees from inquiring...more
The California Civil Rights Council previously issued draft revisions to the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s regulations governing inquiries into and consideration of a job applicant’s criminal history in making hiring...more
On July 24, the California Office of Administrative Law approved the Civil Rights Council’s (the Council) proposed amendment to California’s Employment Regulations Relating to Criminal History, which are set to become...more
Employers commonly conduct background checks on prospective employees in various areas that they may think relevant when deciding whether to hire an individual for a job. Yet, federal, state, and local laws are increasingly...more
In the final hours of the 2023 legislative session, the New York Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1029C / Senate Bill 7551A, the “Clean Slate Act.” If signed by Governor Hochul, it will provide for the automatic sealing of...more
For nearly a decade, Chicago has maintained a “ban-the-box” ordinance restricting employer’s use of criminal records in employment screening. This ordinance largely mirrored the requirements of Illinois’ state-wide Job...more
Existing California law regulates inquiries into and the use of criminal history information in hiring and personnel decisions. Existing California law also substantially impedes the ability of employers (and background...more
Effective December 15, 2022, the city of Gainesville became the first jurisdiction in Florida to restrict the use of pre-employment inquiries into an applicant’s criminal history.1 The City has now joined the dozens of other...more
Employers that rely on criminal background checks to vet candidates know all too well that they must comply with a legion of statutes, ordinances, and regulations. On December 15, 2022, the Civil Rights Council (“Council”)...more
With the COVID-19 pandemic, employers generally had broad discretion to require employees to take COVID-19 tests before entering the workplace. However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has recently...more
Background checks are a great idea—unless you fail to do them correctly. Mistakes can be costly. One online retailer paid $5 million to settle a class action filed by 454,000 job applicants alleging violations of the Fair...more
A federal appeals court recently affirmed a summary judgment entered in favor of WinCo Foods in a class action alleging that WinCo should have reimbursed successful job applicants for the time and travel expenses they...more
On November 15, 2021, the city of Des Moines, Iowa, passed a “ban-the-box” law that will limit employer inquiries and background checks into an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional offer of employment....more