By: Allen Richardson FullIdentity.com 214 331 2551
In Washington DC the city council has dictated to exclude the staff who handle sensitive matters from criminal background checks and credit history reviews. Yet previously in 2012 they voted into effect legislation that required those background checks required along with the credit score reviews.
The reason that this council has created the exemption is because the federal agency’s new release on how criminal background checks or background screening of any type might be considered as discriminatory.
Recently the EEOC released an announcement that concluded that criminal background checks might be considered discriminatory for additional factors. The announcement from the EEOC, to my understanding has not been that will say that excluding a person as a result of criminal activity from employment was considered discriminatory. The statement revealed that the facts a background check would make evident includes information that will identify the person’s age, race and perchance other variables that could be used if a person was discriminating.
Yes, the statement from the EEOC was taken literally by a lot of individuals and Washington DC is a good example of exactly this. The issue using the federal statement is that it gives too many excuses to exclude background checks and screening from the candidate selection process.
Washington’s city council’s decision looks like it’s a point of contention for a lot of including Mayor Vincent Grey who ordered background checks on his top aids because of reports that indicated several of his appointments had criminal pasts. Grey went further to state “I think background checks are always a good practice”. At least common sense prevails at some levels in DC politics.
One other reason that’s often used and was used, as a reason in cases like this, is because of the burden and price of proper criminal background checks. Because of the accessibility to instant criminal background checks that exist through several companies on the web, the fee nor the work load should no longer be considered as a worry.
You can find investigations that can be of great burden and cost for an organization, but that should not be reason to exclude them from anyone’s hiring practice, particularly that relate to any government agency.
Simple online screening of sex offender registries, federal terrorist databases and many other resources are even available totally free in numerous situations. Instant background checks can be obtained which do give fairly accurate and reliable information are available in seconds from various sources for under $50 for one of the most complete background screens available online.
Is Washington using the EEOC’s statement like a scape goat or what is the actual cause of this new exemption in terms of reviewing a staff’s criminal history?
