Earlier in the year ASE shared information on the pending law that would redact dates of birth from court records. The law, that was to take effect July 1, 2021, was postponed until January 1, 2022. This change would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to conduct criminal record checks in the State of Michigan.

As more and more states make the use of cannabis being legal, for medical or recreational use, employers have been challenged with making policies that will best protect the company while still allowing them to fill positions.

ASE is a member of the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). Recently, the PBSA, along with the HR Research Institute, completed a research report, “Background Screening: Trends in the U.S. and abroad 2021.”  Of the responding employers with locations in the U.S., 95% stated that their company does some type of background screening, and 77% of those companies have a documented screening policy.

 

Back in June we were gearing up for the new identifier redaction policy that was to go into effect in Michigan on July 1^st. This policy would have caused dates of birth to be redacted from court records before those records could be provided to the public. It would also have prohibited court clerks from using date of birth in searches and from verbally verifying dates of birth.

There is some good news for employers regarding credit checks. In a recent lawsuit, TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez (No. 20-297), the Supreme Court reversed a $40 million class action judgement that was awarded to the class members at the circuit court level. The jury of the circuit court trial awarded $1,000 in statutory damages and another $6,300 in punitive damages to each class member. The punitive damages were reduced by half in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before the case proceeded to...

Are you experiencing pandemic brain fog? This may sound funny, but the isolation of the pandemic lock down has a large number of people experiencing memory loss. In fact, research by Catherine Loveday, a cognitive neuroscience professor at the University of Westminster showed that up to 50% of people are having memory issues with things such as trying to remember words when talking.

 

Is avoiding risk in background screening worth having someone on staff just to help with beefing up your company’s background checking practices? One publication suggests just that. It has been my experience that most people working with backgrounds are wearing many hats, and especially with all of the events of the last 16 months or so, employers have been in a race to keep up with all of the changes to their practices just in regard to the COVID pandemic. Given the time and attention...

A Michigan Supreme Court decision will make it difficult for employers to run background checks on applicants effective July 1, 2021. The court has ordered that birthdates and other personal information are to be redacted for court records.  

Even though 56% of Michigan voters approved the recreational use of marijuana on November 6, 2018, and it became legal on December 6, 2018, it seems that it is only recently that more and more employers are rethinking their drug screening policies. This is in large part due to the problem of finding employees, and especially in finding employees who will not test positive for the substance.

The Illinois Human Rights Act recently had some changes when Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1480 on March 23. It is now a civil rights violation “for any employer, employment agency, or labor organization to use a conviction record as a basis to refuse to hire, to segregate, or to act with respect to recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure or terms, privileges, or conditions of...

Back in September of 2018, then Governor Rick Snyder enacted a ban-the-box law that removed questions about criminal history from Michigan’s employment application, and he encouraged private employers to do the same. This came after he signed a bill in March of the same year limiting the ability of city and county governments to enact ban-the-box laws when it comes to private employers. Indiana enacted a similar law the year before.

This is the last installment in the list of locations which have laws restricting the use of credit checks in employment decisions. Keep in mind that laws are constantly changing, and new laws can be enacted at any time.

In my last article, Know Employment Credit Check Limitations Per State, I provided information on some of the states that prohibit credit checks for employment purposes unless certain exceptions apply. There are additional states with similar laws, and here is the information on some of the remaining states.

Most employers are at least somewhat familiar with the restrictions placed on employment credit checks by California and New York City, but there are additional states and cities with restrictions on employment checks.

When requesting a background check it is important to provide complete and accurate information to your screening company to get the most accurate and timely report possible. Following is a general list of information needed to complete checks: