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Two pending class action lawsuits accusing Seattle-based coffee chain Starbucks of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by using flawed background reports to reject job applicants are being combined in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in preparation for a settlement, according to Yahoo. According to pleadings in the first action,…

Earlier this month, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 96 (SB 96), the “Criminal Offender Employment Act”. This bill will ‘ban the box‘ by prohibiting private employers in the state from inquiring about a job applicant’s arrest or conviction history on an initial employment application. “Senate Bill 96, a bipartisan piece of…

This week, Lyft announced an expansion of their background check process to include continuous criminal monitoring. Two new features to enhance the safety and security of the Lyft platform have been implemented by the company: Continuous background checks Enhanced identity verification Continuous background checks will provide Lyft with daily monitoring of its active drivers and…

In a new survey from global staffing firm Accountemps, senior managers reported they remove approximately one in three candidates (34 percent) from consideration for a position with their company after checking their references. “Reference checks carry as much weight as any other point in the hiring process, and a misstep here can put you back at square…

Earlier this month, Cincinnati, Ohio passed Ordinance No 0083-2019. This will make asking job applicants about their salary history or current earnings an illegal discriminatory practice for any company in the city. The new ordinance prohibits Cincinnati employers from screening applicants based on wages, relying on salary history in hiring decisions, or refusing to hire an…

About half (48 percent) of surveyed HR professionals said their organization had at some point experienced workplace violence, according to research released by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). “Education has to start from the top down, and often that starts with HR,” said SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP. “There’s…

Important client update: Due to the recent escalation of the political climate and lack of power and communications in the country of Venezuela, we can no longer provide services in this country. The government has closed all schools and all public and private sector employees are to stay home. Just yesterday, envoys of Venezuelan opposition…

According to ‘The Employment Situation‘ report released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the United States declined to 3.8%. while the economy added 20,000 jobs, in February. The unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 3.8 percent in February, and the number of unemployed persons decreased…

South Carolina is the latest state to address expungement of criminal convictions. What does this mean for employers? When expungement requests become part of normal criminal procedure allowing expungement as a right, they will occur in significant numbers. This means that South Carolina records will become fluid, impacting the requirement that a report is “up-to-date”…