News and Announcements

The use of background checks in making hiring decisions is facing increased scrutiny, according to the lead plaintiffs’ attorney in Long v. the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). The plaintiffs in the Long case alleged that they were conditionally offered positions as SEPTA bus operators, subject to completion of a background check. As part of that process, the plaintiffs disclosed previous felony convictions for drug offenses. As a result, the plaintiffs claim, SEPTA withdrew the job offers. In the class action lawsuit filed in April in the U.S. District Court for...

A New York state court ruled that information management giants NTT Data, Inc. and Philips Electronics North America Corp. will remain in a class action lawsuit alleging that major job search websites enable employers to illegally post job listings in New York City with blanket bans on applicants with felony convictions, Outten & Golden LLP and co-counsel said today. Filed in June 2015, the class action brought by 14 New York metropolitan area branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Inc. (NAACP) targets employers that post allegedly illegal job listings...

WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday will move to bar federal agencies from asking applicants for tens of thousands of government jobs about their criminal histories until the very end of the process. While checks of criminal histories have become routine in the public and private sectors, a regulation being proposed by the Obama administration would remove a barrier that discourages many freed prisoners from applying for jobs. The rule would prevent supervisors interviewing applicants for about half of all federal positions from asking about a job seeker’s criminal or credit history until...

A school bus driver turned away from a job as a SEPTA bus operator because of drug conviction dating back nearly 20 years filed a federal lawsuit against the transit agency Wednesday. The suit said that SEPTA routinely misuses criminal history information turned up in background checks to eliminate potential employees, even when the offenses happened long ago and are irrelevant to the job. SEPTA said it was looking into the lawsuit and had no immediate comment. The suit said SEPTA's background check and criminal histories violate federal employment laws. The suit comes as state, federal and...