EEOC criminal background checks: Will the government organization be forced to disclose its policies?

In October, we published a post about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s current battles with BMW Manufacturing and Dollar General, in which the two companies requested that the government organization share its own policies for conducting EEOC criminal background checks. The EEOC refused, arguing that its own policies have nothing to do with either of the lawsuits that had been filed. The lawsuits against BMW and Dollar General were brought because the EEOC argued that the companies’ criminal background checking policies disproportionally screened out black candidates, a violation of the Civil Rights Act. However, after the Commission refused to share its policies for EEOC criminal background checks in the BMW Manufacturing case, a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court in South Carolina has demanded that the EEOC turn over its background checking policies in order to continue the case. The EEOC will have to provide to the court any and all documents that refer to or contain information related to “any policy, guideline, standard, or practice utilized by the EEOC in assessing the criminal conviction record of applicants for employment with the EEOC.” The court ruled that BMW Manufacturing “is entitled” to these documents before the EEOC may proceed with its case against the auto manufacturer. The court for the Dollar General case has not yet made a ruling as to whether or not it will require the EEOC criminal background checks documentation or policies for that case as well. photo credit: sfxeric via photopin cc]]>