Criminal background checks are often the source of questions when it comes to compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity laws. It is not uncommon for states to regularly review whether it is acceptable for employers to review a criminal background check on employees before hiring them.
Rhode Island is the latest state to start examining employment criminal background checks. They are calling it “Ban the Box” and are prohibiting employers from running a background check on employees. The one exception to the ban is in professions where a person with a criminal record cannot hold a particular job as dictated by the state law. The Ban the Box law is a revision to the Fair Employment Practices law and is extended to both public and private employers in the state.
Exclusions
The main gist of the ban make is unlawful for employers to ask an applicant before the interview if it would be ok to run a background check. Employers can not even ask the question “have you ever been convicted of a crime”. This does not mean there are not loop holes.
The Ban the Box does not apply for certain situations in employers. These include:
law enforcement applicants require screening
The law, federal or state, creates a disqualification for an applicant if they have a criminal record or if they have been convicted of particular crimes. For instance, educators must know if an applicant is a registered sex offender.
When a bond is required, and a criminal record would preclude the applicant from attaining the required bond.
A Viral Movement
Rhode Island is the not the first state to join the Ban the Box movement. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 states and more than 50 cities that have banned the use of allowing background checks during the first parts of the employee applications process.
The recession has changed the employment landscape for many states, and it is hard to determine the impact that the Ban the Box movement will have on employment as a whole. The Rhode Island ban will not go into effect until January 2014. While the movement has been gaining momentum for several years, it has been just recent months that states have started to back this ban.
Paul Prudente is the VP for My Screening Report. Paul is a staunch advocate for transparency throughout the hiring process. My Screening Report puts the individual applicant in control of their data by allowing them to self-initiate their own screening report. MSR makes it easy for the employers who are concerned with all of the legal implications of improper screening procedures.