Archive for September 2014
Chicago ordinance introduces pre-employment drug testing for ride-sharing companies
A Chicago alderman has introduced a new ordinance that would require pre-employment drug testing — and subsequent annual drug testing — for all ride-sharing companies’ drivers within the city. Councilman Roderick Sawyer introduced the ordinance in September, after a drug-test mandate was eliminated from the ride-sharing ordinance that the Windy City passed in May. The…
Read MoreWashington D.C. latest to ban the box on job applications
At the beginning of September, Washington D.C. passed its own ban-the-box law, joining the ranks of many other cities and states in preventing employers from requiring job applicants to state whether or not they have ever been convicted of a crime on an initial job application or during a first interview. The new law, called…
Read MoreEmployment equality: D.C. ranks highest, West Virginia lowest for women in the workforce
At the beginning of September, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research released a study on how the 50 states (and Washington D.C.) rank as far as women’s equality in employment and wages. This study has been in progress since 1996. Washington D.C. ranked the highest as far as equality between men and women, due to…
Read MoreDon’t leave childcare to chance; conduct an advanced background check
Many working parents have childcare needs, and if local family members are not available (and willing!) to do babysitting duty, parents often look to the community for good childcare. For some families, the best option is a day care center with full-time childcare staff, while others prefer smaller care facilities or even home-based caregivers who…
Read MoreAugust 2014 employment: job creation stagnant in several industries
a news release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, August didn’t bring much good news for job seekers across several large industries. Those industries — including manufacturing, financial, government, transportation and trade — remained essentially unchanged from July as far as new jobs created. In addition, the number of retail jobs available actually decreased,…
Read MoreCalif. police require social media passwords for employment screening, despite law
Some police agencies in California have been requiring prospective employees to hand over their social media passwords during background screening, or risk losing out on a job. California passed a law two years ago preventing employers from asking applicants for social media passwords, but there is a loophole: the wording of the law makes it…
Read MoreRide-sharing insurance bill, background screening bill have different fates
While ride-sharing services Lyft and Uber have withdrawn their opposition to a newly introduced bill requiring large amounts of insurance on drivers without passengers, for a brief moment the two competitors put aside their differences and became allies against California’s proposed bill AB 2293. In its original form, AB 2293 — which was proposed by…
Read MoreDenver scrambles to perform background checks over ‘kinship’ child placement
routinely failed to conduct federal criminal and fingerprint background checks on the next-of-kin for children who have been removed from their homes due to parental neglect or abuse. Once removed from their parents by DHS, children are often placed with their next-of-kin temporarily, and a lack of screening has put these children at risk of…
Read MoreWhat is employment verification, and how can it keep you from falling prey to resume fraud?
There are many ways that candidates can commit resume fraud when applying for jobs: lying about their experience or education, exaggerating duties or management experience, or even omitting details such as their reason for leaving a previous job. The only surefire way to protect your business from fraud is to verify the candidate’s education and…
Read MoreSenior communities may fall through the cracks under ban-the-box laws
nursing homes and retirement care facilities are supposed to conduct background checks on the nurses and healthcare aides that work with the elderly, senior living retirement communities have different requirements under the law. Independent senior living communities are those communities in which residents live in their own homes within a specified neighborhood, and meet for…
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