Wednesday, August 14, 2013

A Snag in EEOC's Plans to Regulate Background Checks

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission  is a bipartisan Commission that enforces employment discrimination laws. One of their most recent oversight efforts has been to engage in lawsuits aimed at businesses who use background checks to rule out applicants with criminal records. The EEOC claims that certain policies and procedures followed by companies are an act of discrimination against certain minorities. Lawsuits against Dollar General and a U.S. unit of BMW are pending;  however, on August 9th, a lawsuit filed in 2009 by the EEOC against Freeman Companies was resolved last week.

Freeman Companies, an event-marketing company, may have set precedent for several other similar cases when a Federal District Judge dismissed the case brought by the EEOC.  The Judge's opinion letter stated there was a lack of facts and error-ridden statistics. There was no evidence to prove that Freeman Companies, a company that employs 30,000+ people of varying races and backgrounds, was discriminating against African Americans or Hispanic applicants. While this is but a single ruling, this case will certainly have long reaching effects on the efforts of the EEOC’s plan to enforce their opinion on how background checks are used by companies.

Companies should be allowed to protect their primary assets.... their employees and their customers. The refusal to hire an applicant with a relevant, past conviction is not the same as racial discrimination. Safeguarding a company and its employees from violence, fraud, harassment, etc. is a perfectly reasonable course of action. The recent rulings may play a huge factor in the EEOC’s attempts to regulate the use of background checks. This is a victory of sorts for companies that want to maintain a safe workplace and protect their bottom line.

How do you feel about the ruling? 


How do you think it will affect the EEOC’s attempts to enforce their opinion on how background checks should be used by companies? 

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