While I am a firm believer in giving ex-cons another chance, especially when it comes to employment, I also understand why employers are reluctant to hire anyone with a criminal history. My problem with employers is that they refuse to hire an applicant with an arrest history, or they will fire an employee when they learn he has an arrest record, without considering the charges for which he was arrested or the time that has elapsed since his last unlawful act.
Because blacks and Latinos are impacted more by criminal background checks than whites, the EEOC is banning employers from running those checks on job applicants. While I do not want employers to turn away job applicants just because they have an arrest record, I do not think the government should be able to bar them from running criminal background checks.
STATES CHALLENGE EEOC REGULATIONS ON CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS
By Amy Woods
Newsmax
July 28, 2013
Federal regulations curbing criminal-background checks by employers have prompted nine attorneys general to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to a report by Fox News.
The guidelines were put into place last year by the Obama administration in an effort to curtail discrimination, especially against African-Americans, Fox News said. The attorneys general described the rules as "a quintessential example of gross federal overreach."
Two lawsuits have resulted from the new EEOC guidelines. Dollar General is being sued by two job applicants, one of whom said her civil rights were violated when she was denied a job based on an erroneous finding of a felony conviction.
The other lawsuit involves a South Carolina BMW dealership that terminated a disproportionate number of black workers based on criminal histories without considering the details or the nature of the crimes, including when the crimes were committed.
According to the Fox News story, the EEOC updated the policies because more African-Americans, as well as Hispanics, are arrested than other populations in the country. All of the job applicants in the lawsuits are black.
In West Virginia, where Dollar General is one of the largest employers, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the EEOC's guidelines constitute "aggressive overreach." The other attorneys general in the fight represent Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina and Utah.
"We believe that these lawsuits and your application of the law, as articulated through your enforcement guidance, are misguided and a quintessential example of gross federal overreach," wrote the attorneys general in a letter to Jacqueline Berrien, chairwoman of the EEOC.
Kevin Connell, who heads an employment-screening company in Florida, told Fox News the EEOC probably will not reverse its course.
"My concern is the EEOC is trying to create a protected class, which is former criminals," Connell said. "Anybody with some intelligence can see that."
1 comment:
If you assume that criminals have a right to commit crimes, which many liberals apparently do, this is a perfectly reasonable extension of that belief.
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