Hartford, CT - Aug 17, 2010 -

For James Butler III, the little box on job applications looms large: Have you ever been convicted of a felony? The machinist from Hartford, convicted nearly a decade ago of drug and weapon charges, says he rarely hears back from employers when he checks the dreaded box.

“I knew it was a turnoff,” Butler said. “I got to the point where I almost wasn’t going out there and look[ing] for work.”

But Butler didn’t give up and ultimately landed a job with a welding company. He spoke in favor of a new law in Connecticut that eliminates the criminal record question on state employment applications, hoping it will make it easier for convicts to land jobs and stay out of prison. Connecticut has become the fourth state after Minnesota, New Mexico and Hawaii to enact so-called “ban the box” laws for state jobs, according to the New York-based National Employment Law Project. Another 21 cities, including New Haven, Hartford, and Norwich in Connecticut, and Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Minneapolis, have banned the conviction question, said Maurice Emsellem, policy coordinator at the project.

“There’s a huge concern that in urban areas in particular that people are seriously disadvantaged in trying to secure a job based on most any criminal record,” Emsellem said. “Ban the box is an effort to create standards to keep pace with the proliferation of criminal background checks.”

The laws don’t prohibit employers from asking the question once they’re face to face with applicants and don’t stop them from doing background checks. But supporters say eliminating the question on applications gives them a chance to get an interview and explain their past.

“If we truly want people to have a chance at rehabilitation and become productive members of society, it doesn’t make sense to set them up for immediate rejection when it comes to finding a job,” said Rep. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford. “Moving the criminal background check to later in the hiring process is fairer for a prospective employee and still protects an employer without prejudicing them with an initial application check-off.”

McCrory said the law, which goes into effect October 1, will allow job seekers to be evaluated on their skills and qualifications and not immediately rejected based on a criminal conviction. Once an applicant is deemed qualified, he said a criminal background check will be conducted. For Butler, that means a chance to tell employers his conviction was for the least serious category of felonies, and did not involve violence and that he has stayed out of trouble after a difficult period in his life. He said he can also tout his skills and status as a veteran.

Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill, saying job applicants are already protected by anti-discrimination provisions in the law and said the vagueness of the law could lead to challenges by applicants. But lawmakers on Monday overrode her veto.

The law could have wide implications because more than 200,000 state residents have felony convictions and about 6,000 prisoners are released annually, according to supporters. But Connecticut, like other states, has a huge budget deficit so hiring prospects are dim for now. Audrey Richards of New Haven is hoping the new law will help her 24-year-old son Joseph land a state job. She said he served a one year prison sentence for drug possession when he was 18 and has since been repeatedly turned down for jobs at stores due to his record.

“He’s frustrated,” Richards said. “Sometimes he’s angry. He feels let down. You would think they would give him a chance.”

The New York State Office of Court Administration (OCA) provides a New York Statewide criminal history record search (CHRS) for a fee of $55.00. Effective, July 1, 2010, OCA’s Criminal History Record Search fee is increased to $65.00 for each search.

What this means for clients of Crimcheck.com:

As always, we must respond to the state of New York’s fee increases in turn. While we understand this may be frustrating for our clients, we do not mark up the state’s fee at all.

The counties affected will not be changed at this time.

Please direct any questions regarding this change to myself or Ryan Sherman, Vice President (rsherman@crimcheck.com).

We appreciate your continued business, and look forward to continuing to serve your needs.

Independence, Ohio – April XX, 2010 – Alliance Staffing Solutions, a full-service recruitment firm with offices in Cuyahoga, Summit, Portage and Franklin counties, has created a partnership with Crimcheck.com™ to create a single offering that combines staffing services with pre-employment background checks for corporate clients. The initiative will provide single-source simplicity for corporate customers seeking to streamline their staffing operations, combining what had been a two-step/two-vendor process into an integrated approach.

Alliance Staffing Solutions serves the broadest scope of industries among any staffing company in Northeast Ohio, giving its customers single-source convenience across multiple specialties. This deep experience within so many industry specialties allows Alliance to provide consistent, qualified placements that enhance organizational productivity.

“Our philosophy has always been to provide a more careful screening and due diligence process than you’d typically find with most staffing companies in order to make the best match possible,” explained Alliance Staffing President Aaron Grossman. “So going even further to integrate background checks for crime, data and education verification checks is completely consistent with our full-service approach to staffing.”

“Most companies already provide some sort of background verification and crime check in their employment process, for good reason,” added Ted Moss, Crimcheck.com CEO. “The Society for Human Resource Management states that 22 percent of job applicants make some type of false claims, so as any employer can tell you, the need is evident. Bundling our service with Alliance Staffing made sense from a service perspective for our clients and from a convenience perspective for our clients.”
Moss said that his company considered partnering with several staffing companies before settling on Alliance Staffing as its partner. Both companies, he said, offered the same premium approach to client service that he found core to Crimcheck.com’s philosophy.
Alliance Staffing Solutions is the only employment agency currently offering the Crimcheck.com screening as an integrated part of its service offering. Corporate clients can order the service with a single phone call, receive a single integrated report, and receive a single invoice. As the service evolves, the two companies will create a combined employment portal where its corporate clients can order the services online.

About Alliance Staffing Solutions

A registered Minority Business Enterprise, the Alliance Staffing Solutions Group of Companies, is a full-service recruitment firm headquartered in Independence, Ohio. Alliance Staffing offers expertise through its business units that include Alliance Financial Solutions, Alliance Office Solutions, Alliance Healthcare Solutions, Alliance Scientific Solutions, Alliance Technical Solutions, Alliance Industrial Solutions, and the Alliance Search Group. The firm is a multiple Weatherhead 100 award recipient as one of Northeast Ohio’s fastest growing companies. Alliance believes in providing efficient and effective sourcing of specialized recruitment services that result in consistent, qualified placements that enhance organizational productivity for its clients. Alliance Staffing was also recently awarded a NEO Success Award, which recognizes the most successful companies in the region. For more information on any of Alliance Staffing’s recruitment capabilities or its new venture with Crimcheck.com, call 216-525-0100 or visit www.AllianceStaffingSolutions.com.

About Crimcheck.com

Crimcheck.com is the leading provider of fast, affordable, and comprehensive background checks and pre employment screening solutions. Crimcheck.com provides its clients with individualized solutions, which are customized to enhance safe hiring processes. Since 1991, over 3,500 companies have chosen Crimcheck.com for their quality product and reliable service at competitive rates. Crimcheck.com helps companies protect their most important asset – the employees that make them a success.

Generate Authorization Email has been renamed to its trademarked name Applicant Link.

Effective September 1st, 2009, the Florida state record fee will increase to $8.05 for a Florida 3–year MVR and to $10.05 for Florida 7–year and Complete MVRs.

Utah recently passed a new law, the Employment Selection Procedures Act, Utah Code 34A-1-202, which prohibits what personal information an employer with over 15 employees in the state of Utah may require an applicant to provide in the pre-employment context.

This new law went into effect on May 12, 2009. Specifically, the law states that employers may not request information related to an applicant’s social security number, date or birth or driver license number until either:

1) the applicant is offered a job; or

2) the time when the employer obtains a criminal background check, credit check, or driving record check to which the applicant has consented.

Employers subject to this law may also not use information about an applicant for any other purpose than to determine whether the employer will hire the applicant as an employee. The law additionally places requirements for employers to maintain a policy regarding the retention, disposition, access, and confidentiality of this information. Finally, employers may only keep such information about applicants about whom they do not hire for a period of two years after obtaining the information from the applicant.

Texas lawmakers worried about identity theft are trying to remove state employees’ birth dates from public records — a move journalists and open records advocates say is unnecessary and will hamper government oversight.

A proposal by Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, that would make the information private is scheduled for a public hearing Tuesday. A Senate version of the bill had a hearing earlier this month.

Those and at least two other bills filed in the Legislature this session could supersede a pending Texas Supreme Court case between The Dallas Morning News and the state comptroller’s office.

In 2006 the comptroller’s office filed a lawsuit asking that birth dates be ruled as personal information exempt from open records requests. That was after then-Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn refused to include birth dates with employee payroll records requested by the Morning News. Past records have included the dates.

Read More Here

Dear NAPBS Members,

As you may be aware, the State of New York has amended its laws relating to investigative consumer reports and those reports containing criminal reports. New York’s ex-convict’s have a high unemployment rate of approximately 60% after one year from release. To help those people find employment, New York is working to make it very clear to the users of criminal reports that they cannot discriminate against these people simply because they have a criminal record.

On February 1, 2009, two changes to the New York consumer reporting laws will become effective:

§380-c, General Business Law. If a user requests an investigative consumer report for employment purposes, The user must, in the notice to the consumer state that a report will be sought and indicate that it is providing a copy of Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law to the consumer which sets for the anti-discrimination provision relating to those with criminal records. It matters not whether the investigative consumer report will contain any criminal record information.

§380-g, General Business Law. This amendment added sub-section (d) which provides that if a consumer report contains a criminal record then the user shall provide a copy of Article 23-A of the Correction Law to the consumer.

While the law does not specifically state which hiring situations are controlled by these new laws, past research suggests that New York discrimination laws will apply to those working in the State of New York. Thus it will apply to a New York company employing an applicant to work in New York. It will not apply to a New York company employing a person in New Jersey unless they hire that person in New York. It will apply to a New Jersey employing someone in New York.

What does a consumer reporting agency need to do?

1. Provide a workable copy of Article 23-A of the New York Correction law which provides the rights of non-discrimination for those with criminal records to your customers. A suggested format is included. It is down to a front and back of one page.

2. Provide new language in your Consent and Release forms referencing that a copy of Article 23-A is being provided to the consumer. A suggested form is provided. In regard to the use of Consent and Release forms, the new law provisions do not follow a logical connection to the report being provided since they require notification if any investigative consumer report, regardless of whether the report includes criminal records, is ordered but the notice about criminal convictions must be in a Consent and Release form. Of course, many regular consumer reports contain criminal records, but the Consent and Release for these types of reports need not contain this notice regarding discrimination and the use of criminal reports. Rather the user of a regular consumer report will provide a copy of the law later in the process. This creates a very confusing situation. When the law creates choices, it is likely that some ministerial person will select the wrong choice and thus create the legal trap. It is recommended that a single Consent and Release form be used for New York employment and every consumer who is the subject of the report be provided a copy of the anti-discrimination law found in Article 23-A. If you wish to alter your own forms rather than using the attached form, then be sure that the form covers regular and investigative consumer reports and that an acknowledgement for the receipt of Article 23-A is included on the form.

New York has also provided a safe harbor for employers. Since the state is pushing for employment of those with a criminal record, it has now provided a defense to a negligent hiring/retention claim if the employer considers the elements contained in §753 of Article 23-A. Logically the inverse should be true that such analysis would provide a defense to a discrimination claim by an applicant who is not hired. Your clients may not have heard of this law or they may not have implemented it in their hiring process. In order not to lose clients due to new legal requirements, it is suggested that CRAs provide the enclosed suggested form with the attached cover letter to their customers which can be used either to qualify or disqualify an applicant/employee based upon his/her criminal record. Filling out part of the form, not the decision making process, might be of service the CRA can offer to the client and thus the customer only has to describe the relationship of the offense to the job and the reasons for not hiring or hiring the individual. Further, a chart of New York offenses and their classifications so that relative seriousness can be noted on the form, is also attached. We cannot guarantee the completeness of this chart, but it is the official chart provided by the State of New York for categorizing state crimes.

Documents can be found at

http://www.napbs.com/content.php?id=270

Scroll to the bottom of the page for the New York Documents.

The Crimcheck.com office will be closed on Friday, November 28th. Email support and questions will still be answered during normal business hours on Friday.