Adverse Action Letters under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Employment Screening Background Checks
By Lester Rosen, ESR President From the ESR mail box: Here is a frequently asked question dealing with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the pre-adverse and post-adverse action notices. Suppose an employer has two finalists for one position. The employer submits both names for background checks and both candidates have clear background reports. The [...]
Categories: adverse action, Best Practices, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Recent Posts Tags:
New FTC Rules on Employment Verifications Do Not Affect Users of Consumer Reports
By Lester Rosen, President of ESR Some employers may have read about new rules that went into effect July 1, 2010, that potentially affect the accuracy of employment verifications. For employers concerned about the new rules, the short answer is that it does not affect how and when an employer receives a background report. It also does not [...]
Categories: Employment Verification, FACTA, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Federal laws, Federal Trade Commission, Recent Posts Tags:
The Dangers of Do-It-Yourself Background Checks
By Lester Rosen, President of ESR (Originally Posted on Toolbox for HR) From the mailbox: Why shouldn’t employers simply do their own background checks in-house? They can hire people from the screening industry and can certainly figure it out. Answer: First, the fact that a firm may be able to set up an internal screening program does not [...]
Categories: Background Checks, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Federal Trade Commission, Negligent hiring, Outsourcing, Recent Posts Tags:
New Case Demonstrates How the Details are Everything if Taking Adverse Action on a Current Employee Due to a Background Check
By Les Rosen, President of ESR A new federal district court case demonstrates the importance of handling the adverse action process correctly when terminating an existing employee due to an unsatisfactory background check. In the case decided on February 26, 2010 by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17373), [...]
Categories: adverse action, Best Practices, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Recent Posts Tags:
Federal Bill Seeks To Ban Credit Report Checks for Most Employment Screening
By Les Rosen, President of ESR & Thomas Ahearn, ESR Staff Writer Employers may have one less employment screening tool at their disposal if a federal bill banning credit checks during most employment background checks becomes law. Recent legislative efforts throughout the country have sought to ban credit reports from the employment screening process. Three states – Washington, [...]
Categories: Background Checks, credit reports, employee theft, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Federal laws, Government Background Checks, Recent Posts Tags:
Federal Bill Seeks To Ban Credit Report Checks for Most Employment Screening
By Thomas Ahearn, ESR Staff Writer Employers may have one less employment screening tool at their disposal if a federal bill banning credit checks during most employment background checks becomes law. Recent legislative efforts throughout the country have sought to ban credit reports from the employment screening process. Three states – Washington, Hawaii, and Oregon – currently [...]
Categories: Background Checks, credit reports, employee theft, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Federal laws, Government Background Checks, Recent Posts Tags:
FTC Offers Facts for Consumers about Credit Reports and Employment Background Checks
By Les Rosen, President of ESR & Thomas Ahearn, ESR Staff Writer The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) – the nation’s consumer protection agency – issued “FTC Facts For Consumers” in May 2010 that explains “Credit Reports and Employment Background Checks” to consumers who have applied for jobs. Although the new FTC notice has been criticized for containing [...]
Categories: Background Checks, credit reports, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Recent Posts Tags:
Lesson on how a consumer should not react to an inaccurate background check
A federal District Court decision issued in August of 2009 in the Western District of Arkansas contains a valuable lesson for a consumer that believes that a background check was inaccurate. In that case, a Court held it was the consumer’s own behavior after the background check that caused the job loss, and not an [...]
Categories: Consumer protection, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Recent Posts Tags: background, check, criminal, employment
Court finds that not hiring someone constitutes an adverse action for purposes of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
In a Court opinion filed December 30, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled that not getting hired is an “adverse action” as defined by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the law that governs background checks. In that case, the plaintiff that was representing himself filed legal papers alleging [...]
Categories: Best Practices, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Federal Trade Commission, identity theft, Recent Posts Tags: background, check, complete, employment, safety
Lawsuit Demonstrates What Employers and Employee Screening Firms Should Not Do
An opinion issued by the U.S. District Court in Northern District of Illinois in 2003 provides a case study on what an employer and screening firm should NOT do when it comes to employment background checks. According to the allegations filed in the case, the plaintiff was contacted by a major hotel and offered a position. [...]
Categories: Best Practices, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Human Resources, Recent Posts Tags: background, check, complete, criminal, employee, employment