In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Kaplan Higher Education Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the award of summary judgment against the EEOC in its suit alleging that Kaplan’s use of credit checks disparately impacted African-American applicants in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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Employers Beware: N.Y. AG Takes on CRAs, Forewarns Heightened Article 23-A Enforcement
It is well known that Article 23-A of New York’s Correction Law requires employers to consider several mitigating factors before taking adverse action against a job applicant based on a past conviction. Recently, four of the nation’s largest consumer reporting agencies (CRAs), which regularly run criminal background checks on behalf of employers, came under fire…
NH Senate Votes to Ban Credit Checks
On March 13, 2014, the New Hampshire Senate voted to limit the use of credit checks in hiring and personnel decisions. The legislation (SB 295) is not solely prohibitive, as an employer may consider credit history where otherwise required under state or federal law, or where there is a bona fide purpose that is substantially…
Background Check Guidance from the FTC
On March 10, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jointly issued two short guides on the use of background checks in hiring and personnel decisions. This alert addresses the guides as well as the ongoing roles of these agencies in monitoring employment-related background checks and enforcing applicable laws.
Read the …
Maine Revises State FCRA to be More Consistent with Federal Law
On June 11, 2013, Maine’s governor signed LD 1410 to update the state’s consumer reporting law by adopting, in large part, the provisions of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”). Even with this harmonization, the revised Maine FCRA contains certain state-specific obligations(1) and sets forth slightly different enforcement and remedial schemes than its federal…