Seyfarth Synopsis: As the number of class actions alleging FCRA violations continues to skyrocket, it is critical for California employers to understand the basics of all laws affecting employment screening programs. This blog examines those laws and provides practical considerations for employers looking to hire or rehire employees during a shutdown affecting critical sources of information needed for background
Continue Reading The Business of Background Checks During a Pandemic
California Employers Watch Out! Legal Minefields for Background Checks
Seyfarth Synopsis: California’s ban-the-box law strictly regulates how employers may obtain and consider background check information when hiring and making personnel decisions. What’s more, Los Angeles and San Francisco have their own ban-the-box ordinances. These ordinances and the California Labor Code create a patchwork of rules that put employers at risk when checking whether an applicant has a criminal record.
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California Employers: Beware the Background Check Bugaboos
Seyfarth Synopsis: California is rife with regulation of how employers may obtain and consider background check information for use in hiring and personnel decisions. The relatively new California ban-the-box law (effective January 1, 2018) and the older Los Angeles and San Francisco ordinances and amendments to the California Labor Code set strict rules on when and how employers can consider
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California Passes State-Wide Ban-the-Box Law
Seyfarth Synopsis: The California Legislature has just created yet another protected class of individuals entitled to sue employers under the Fair Employment and Housing Act. The new class of potential plaintiffs are applicants denied employment because of their conviction history, where the employer is unable to justify relying on that conviction history to deny employment.
We’ve reported on two January
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Checking Out Applicants (Part 1): California Credit Checks
By Pam Devata and Dana Howells
Complying with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (the FCRA) is not easy. Compliance with both the FCRA and California restrictions on credit and background checks is much more challenging. Given California’s extra-strength privacy protections and penchant for workplace regulation, it is not surprising that California has peculiarities when it comes to credit and other background checks. In Part 1 of a three part blog, we take a dive into credit checks—California style.
California is one of a growing number of states with laws restricting use of credit history for employment. Effective January 1, 2012, California Labor Code Section 1024.5 generally prohibits the use of credit reports for employment purposes by private sector employers. If an exception to Section 1024.5 permits an employer to use credit reports, California employers must comply with both the FCRA and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act, which are not always congruent.
Comparing and contrasting the FCRA with the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act
What FCRA requires—in a nutshell. Prior to conducting a background check on an applicant or employee through a third party, an employer must:
- Provide a notice/disclosure to the employee/applicant that the employer will seek a credit report. The disclosure must be clear, conspicuous, and made in a document consisting solely of the disclosure. This is a huge area of class action litigation.
- Supply a copy of “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”
- Obtain written authorization/consent from the applicant/employee.
Prior to taking adverse employment action against an applicant/employee based, in whole or in part, on a consumer credit report (or investigative consumer report—more about those in Part 2), employers must follow a two-step notification process required by the FCRA:
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