by Alonzo Martinez - Forbes
Lawmakers in three jurisdictions recently passed legislation that impacts employers’ screening programs. Laws restricting consideration of an individual's criminal history have advanced in Illinois, New York City, and Philadelphia; additionally, Philadelphia's law concerning the use of credit history in employment decisions was recently amended.
by Dana Siddle, Daniel G.C. Glover, Colton Dennis - McCarthy Tetrault
As part of our blog series on the proposed changes to Canada’s private sector privacy laws, this post examines the proposed consent rules under the new regime for processing personal information.
As noted previously, Canada’s private sector privacy laws will change with the introduction of Bill C-11. Named the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020, Bill C-11 seeks to modernize Canadian privacy legislation through the introduction of two acts: the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (“CPPA”) and the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act, which would create a new enforcement tribunal.
by Alexander Reich, Jason Tremblay, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP - JD Supra
In 2015, Illinois became one of the first states to enact a “ban the box” law, preventing employers from inquiring about criminal histories on employment applications. The “ban the box” law followed a general prohibition in Illinois under the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) on basing any employment decisions on an applicant’s or employee’s arrest history. Now, Illinois is set to go one step further and ban the use of criminal convictions in employment actions, with limited exceptions.
Read more: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/illinois-poised-to-bar-criminal-1774361/
by Scott Horton, Horton Law PLLC - JDSupra
New York City joined the ranks of municipalities with a “ban-the-box” law in 2015. The original law prohibited employers with 4 or more employees from asking about an applicant’s pending arrest or criminal conviction record until after making a conditional job offer. Recent amendments to the New York City Fair Chance Act will add new protections for employees with arrests or convictions during employment.
Read more: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/nyc-adds-protections-for-employees-with-2650371/
by Richard Greenberg, Daniel J. Jacobs, Susan M. Corcoran, Anna Broccolo - The National Law Review
Following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s non-action on the bill passed by the New York City Council in December expanding the scope of New York City’s Fair Chance Act (FCA), the amendments have become law. The amendments, which go into effect in late-July, significantly expand employment protections for applicants and employees with criminal charges or arrests.
by Joseph A. Gill and Tyler K. Gray - McKercher LLP
In a previous life, I sat in on a data governance meeting as a consultant. During the conversation, the team was discussing an automated decision-making process where one of the pieces of information collected was an individual’s age. Where an individual was under a certain age, they were disqualified and pre-screened out of using a product. Then, one of the team members spoke up and raised a concern about using this automated decision factor, and even whether we should collect this information at all. The team member stated that age alone was not helpful to the company in qualifying or disqualifying the potential customer and may even discriminate against otherwise excellent potential customers. The conversation raised a serious question about the true value of the information to the company’s product delivery. It also raised a question about whether use of that information could be justified if reliance on it to deny access to the product was brought to light.
Read more: https://www.mckercher.ca/resources/ahead-by-a-century-canadas-rehaul-of-privacy-law-in-2020
by Mark Anderson - Sacramento Business Journal
With the new year, California's financial regulator has new tools and abilities to protect consumers from unlawful, deceptive and abusive practices in more financial industries.
The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, the new name for the Department of Business Oversight, has the ability to investigate and prosecute previously unregulated financial products and services, including debt collectors, credit repair companies, consumer credit reporting agencies, debt relief companies, rent-to-own contractors and private school financing companies.
Read more: https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2021/01/04/california-regulator-financial-fraud.html
By Louis R. Mizell, Jr. and Michael A. Gips - SHRM
Background checks, preemployment screening, background investigations—by whatever name, it's the process of scouring criminal, academic, employment and other records to verify that potential hires are who they say they are and have the background, education and experience they claim.
by David Anthony and Sarah Crandall - Troutman Pepper
If you have ever leased an apartment, house, or storefront, you have probably agreed to a background check or asked the applicant to do so. What you may not know is that the process of looking into someone’s background is regulated by state, local, and federal law. Here are five points any landlord, tenant, or screening agency should know about tenant screening laws.
Read more: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/five-things-you-should-know-about-81451/
by Steven Kaplan and Rosa Trembour - Littler
On November 20, 2020, the Montgomery County, Maryland Council approved amendments to its 2014 “ban-the-box” legislation. The original legislation (Bill 36-14) prohibited employers with 15 or more full-time employees in Montgomery County from conducting a criminal background check of a job applicant, or otherwise inquiring about the criminal or arrest history of an applicant, prior to the completion of a first interview. Bill 35-20 expands the scope of the previous legislation by prohibiting background checks until after a conditional job offer has been extended, and redefining “employer” to include any employer with one or more full-time employees in Montgomery County.
