The HR Magazine article: Safer Separations, written by Johnny Lee, director of Peace at Work, an agency dedicated to violence prevention in the workplace, states, “Terminations and layoffs are the leading causes of workplace violence committed by employees. Being respectful of the terminated employee betters the chances that the employee will walk away without engaging in retaliatory behavior.”, Lee said. He provides tips for before, during and after a termination meeting. Similarly, in POE’s screening… [Read More]
Prevent Class Action Lawsuits
Thousands of job applicants have filed class action lawsuits, claiming the Defendant Employers’ Authorization forms are invalid because the forms contain extraneous information. POE believes it may be only a matter of time before property owners and managers are presented with the same legal challenge. Accordingly, POE has revised our Resident Consumer Report Authorization and we have created a new Resident Consumer Report Disclosure. POE recommends that our multi-family housing and property management clients take… [Read More]
IRS failed to Perform Checks on Contractors
By: Associated Press – August 17, 2014 — WASHINGTON — The IRS failed to do background checks on some private contractors who handled confidential taxpayer information, exposing more than a million taxpayers to an increased risk of fraud and identity theft, a government investigator said. In one case, the IRS gave a printing contractor a computer disk with names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 1.4 million taxpayers, but didn’t require a background check for… [Read More]
Invalid Employment Consumer Report Authorizations?
Thousands of job applicants have filed class action lawsuits, claiming the Defendant Employers’ Authorization forms are invalid because they contain extraneous information. The lawsuits claim the Employers’ Authorization forms contain, among other things: release of liability applicant admission that the applicant has not knowingly withheld any information the application does not create an employment contract the applicant waives the receipt of a copy of any public record Other charges claim the Authorizations are included on… [Read More]
Managing Compliance Issues
POEknows has recently updated our Employment Consumer Report Authorization and Employment Disclosure forms. Due to the growing number of employers that are being targeted for class action lawsuits, we analyzed the allegations and we are recommending changes in order to ensure that our clients are utilizing authorization forms that follow, strictly, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). According to reports on the latest class action lawsuit against a major market retailer, this retailer was not… [Read More]
Ban the Box
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recommendation, in its guidance to employers, regarding criminal background checks, to not ask about criminal convictions on employment applications, continues to snowball through state and local courts across the country. Keeping tabs on the jurisdictions which have put into law the so-called “Ban the Box” recommendation is difficult. As of this writing, Washington, DC, plus 22 States and 49 major cities and counties have enacted legislation, to “remove unfair barriers… [Read More]