RELIABLE BACKGROUND SCREENING INDUSTRY NEWS AND ARTICLES

On Friday, February 7, 2014, a lawsuit was filed against Whole Foods Market California, Inc., in an effort to create a class action lawsuit against this employer for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA requires that an employee background screening authorization form have the sole purpose of providing the required FCRA disclosures, and obtaining the consumer’s authorization to perform the employee background check only. It cannot have any general release of liability. Traditionally, the FTC considered language pertaining to general release of liability to be invalid, but they did not challenge the rest of the authorization for the employee [...]

The deadline has finally arrived for mandatory use of revised FCRA forms What I posted last November, is now a mandatory use of revised FCRA Employee Screening Disclosure and Authorizations forms, as well as revised FCRA Summary of Consumer Rights. This change in forms is a result of the CFPB replacing the FTC as the governing agency over enforcement of the FCRA. The FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) governs employee background checks performed by employee background screening companies, even when an Employment Credit Report is not part of the employee background screening report. Posted by: Rudy Troisi. President, Reliable Background Screening.

Today we revised our employee screening disclosures and service agreements. This was done in advance of the mandatory requirement, effective January 1, 2013, that these employee screening disclosures, as well as the FCRA Summary of Rights be updated. The reason that these revisions are being required is because the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) is replacing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as the chief enforcer of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). It should be noted that there are no substantive changes in the regulations of the FCRA, but rather the name and contact information for the CFPB is replacing the contact [...]

On April 25, 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidelines for employee background checks, both for pre-employment screening and existing employee background checks. The EEOC did this without releasing a draft for public notice and comment, as is usually done before final guidelines are issued. Given this unilateral action on the part of the EEOC, it is expected that Congress and many industry groups will challenge these guidelines. Although the EEOC does not govern the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act, which does in fact regulate employee background checks), an EEOC investigation of an employer’s practices can cost an employer [...]