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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