Grocery stores settle class action suits over FCRA violations

three large grocery store chains have found themselves the target of lawsuits for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. All three of them chose the wiser route, to settle the class action lawsuits rather than risk going to court and losing their cases. Whole Foods, Food Lion/Delhaize, and Publix Supermarkets each settled out of…

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Uber quietly begins testing fingerprint background checks

Uber has quietly started testing the fingerprinting process on some of its drivers. Uber background checks have been a controversial issue since day one. Five hundred Los Angeles-based Uber drivers were invited to undergo fingerprint background checks; it has not been determined whether fingerprint screening has been tested in other markets, or whether the fingerprinting…

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Kansas considers updating background check regulations for school bus drivers

oard is considering whether it should require bus drivers to have a completely clean background check, with any felony record at any point in time being cause for disqualification for future employment or termination from current employment. It appears that parents of children in Kansas schools are divided on whether or not the expansion of…

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Obama expected to sign Executive Order to ‘ban the box’ for federal employers

President Obama is expected to sign an Executive Order on Monday that would prohibit federal employers from asking job applicants questions about potential criminal records until significantly later in the hiring process. In a previous post, we shared that both the House of Representatives and the Senate are also currently debating bills that propose ban-the-box…

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Are fingerprint background checks a form of discrimination?

against fingerprint background checks for drivers. The Austin City Council had recommended fingerprint background checks for Uber and Lyft drivers, but two local groups are not on board. Teddy McDaniel of the Austin Urban League and Nelson Linder of the Austin chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People wrote a letter…

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Amazon violates Federal Law with employee background checks

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). When he applied for a job with Amazon as a “puller” at one of the online retailer’s distribution centers in November 2013, Williams also filled out a form giving SMX the authority “to obtain his consumer report for employment purposes.” That form stated that if anything is found in the…

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Louisiana daycares lose licenses due to lack of background checks, disregard for state law

Two daycare centers in Louisiana recently had their child care licenses revoked when Louisiana Department of Education inspections revealed that each had violated dozens of state laws. Violations included not conducting criminal background checks on all employees, not having properly licensed and qualified directors, not documenting all workers, not meeting required employee-to-child ratios, not having…

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EEOC does not have to disclose background check policies, says federal court

it brought against Dollar General and BMW Manufacturing late last year, the EEOC argued that the companies’ hiring practices screened out minority candidates disproportionately, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. When Dollar General and BMW requested to see how the EEOC’s own hiring and background screening policies differed from their own, the EEOC…

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Care.com background checks receive scrutiny after wrongful death lawsuit

wrongful death lawsuits against both the nanny and Care.com. The website allows caregivers to post information for free, and charges families a monthly subscription fee to access information about potential nannies, caregivers and babysitters. There are three levels of subscription: a $37 per month standard subscription; a “preferred” subscription for $59 per month that includes…

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Could fingerprints be the next leading method for drug testing?

The FBI has a fingerprint database for conducting federal criminal background checks, and plenty of organizations and employers require their employees and volunteers to be fingerprinted as a way to ensure the workers do not have criminal records. But can fingerprint background checks be used for anything besides criminal records? A new study shows they…

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