Can employers disqualify job applicants for having a criminal past?
12th August 2010
Apparently not.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has been cracking down on efforts to disqualify potential hires with criminal records or bad credit history, arguing that the practice can be tantamount to discrimination, as such applicants are disproportionately black or Latino.
And whose fault is that? Not the employer’s; he has to make his best judgment on the information available to him.
The EEOC indicated its disapproval of such practices last fall, when it it filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit against Dallas-based Freeman Companies, an events planning firm. The EEOC alleged that Freeman Companies used credit history and criminal records to discriminate against against blacks, Hispanics and males.
This is Yet Another Stupid Bureaucracy at work.