Judge: Dollar General must tell how it screens job applicants, EEOC doesn't need to supply info on why it brought disparate impact action

By Jonathan Bilyk, Cook County Record

A federal judge has dealt setbacks to Dollar General in its years-long court fight with federal equal opportunity regulators over claims the company’s employment screening practices resulted in keeping African Americans from landing jobs at the retailer’s stores.

Read the story here.

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• Court issues mixed bag discovery decision in EEOC nationwide race discrimination case (Seyfarth Shaw LLP)

Recruiters’ Use of Criminal and Credit Checks Colliding With Legislative Constraints

Workforce Management
October 2009
Even employers that limit the types of screening results that will lead to adverse hiring decisions may violate federal law.
By Fay Hansen

Explosive growth in the background screening industry during the past decade has generated near-universal adoption of criminal checks and a steady rise in credit checks for all U.S. job candidates.
In some industries, recruiters are using criminal and credit screening as a quick and easy method for culling the ever-larger pile of applications. But this growing reliance on screening is on a collision course with new legislative restrictions, legal challenges and mounting evidence that such results are poor predictors of behavior and performance.
Even employers that limit the types of screening results that will lead to adverse hiring decisions may violate federal law. On October 1, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a discrimination lawsuit against Freeman Cos., a nationwide convention and corporate events marketing company.
Since at least 2001, Freeman has rejected job applicants based on their credit history and if they have had various types of criminal charges or convictions, the suit claims. The EEOC says these exclusionary practices are not job-related or justified by business necessity.
In March, the EEOC settled a lawsuit against Franke Foodservice Systems, which refused to hire a black applicant who disclosed a felony conviction on his application even though the company hired a white applicant a year earlier who made a similar disclosure. A spate of EEOC and private lawsuits are pending against other companies for unlawfully denying employment to people with criminal records or bad credit histories.

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/26/74/44/index.php