Background checks for employment: How California laws differ

Conducting background checks for employment requires employers to strike a balance between getting enough information to make an informed hiring decision and not overstepping the boundaries into areas that might infringe upon employee privacy. Additionally, as with many other employment laws, California has specific rules that are stricter than the federal regulations—California employers need to be well-versed in both their federal and state obligations. Boxing headgear reviews

Background Checks for Employment: How California Laws Differ

California’s laws regarding background checks for employment were drastically overhauled in 2002. There’s a substantial civil exposure issue for an employer who fails to follow rules—it’s up to $10,000 per occurrence, not including damages.

Additionally, there are special rules for California:

• There’s a special “check the box” rule, “which essentially says the candidate has the right to receive a free copy of the exact background check that you’re going to receive. If they’d like it, they need to check the box off (or it could be a yes or no question).” Jared Callahan explained during a recent CER webinar titled “Background Checks: How to Legally Use Criminal Records, Social Media Searches, and More.”
• If the employer obtains public records directly, there’s a second checkbox to notify the candidate of this.
• There are special rules for the consent and disclosure including the name, address and phone number of the Credit Reporting Agency used to obtain the background information. Essentially. the candidate should know who is gathering information on them.
• Special language needs to be included on first page of each report about accuracy. Accuracy of records will always be an issue because the entities in question (such as court records, employer files, schools, etc.) can always have clerical or other errors that affect accuracy.
• In addition to following the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, California employers must also specifically certify they will follow California’s rules.
• A Spanish language form must be provided if the applicant requests more information in Spanish.
• California has a 7-year limit on criminal records. “On the surface, what is says is that employers in the state of California can’t consider records that are older than 7 years.” Callahan advised. However, the math is tricky because the date may be the date of conviction, the date of a violation of probation, or the date someone is released from prison.
• Arrests cannot be held against applicants, but a pending case can be reported.

Background Checks for Employment: New California Legislation 2012

California legislation SB 909 and AB 22 relate to offshoring and credit reports, respectively. Employers in California and employers doing business in California need to understand these new pieces of legislation.

Senate Bill 909 (SB 909) relates to the offshoring of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of consumers who are the subjects of background checks for employment in California. The bill says that employers (or background firms) in California will have to disclose to applicants whether their background checks for employment are being outsourced to companies outside of the United States, where their personal data could be particularly vulnerable to compromise.

In the background check for employment industry, the offshoring of the screening process is becoming common as a cost-reduction measure; the problem is that this puts candidate information at risk. “The countries that we’re talking about outside of the United States don’t enjoy the same type of privacy and security laws we have here in the US. I strongly suggest that each one of you – regardless of whether you’re in California or not – go to your background firm and ask them where the data is processed, and specifically ask them if this information is taken offshore.” Callahan said.

Assembly Bill 22 (AB 22) regulates the use of credit report checks of job applicants and current employees by employers for employment purposes. The growing trend is to restrict employers’ ability to run credit reports on prospective employees. The question comes down to relevance: is a credit report job-relevant? In California, employers will have to specifically state in writing to the candidate the reason why a credit report is being run.

To register for a future webinar, visit CER webinars.

Jared Callahan is a licensed Private Investigator and Director of Client Services for Employment Screening Resources in Novato, California. Mr. Callahan works with employers to conduct background checks and screenings, and teaches them about legal compliance efforts across all 50 states.