POE wants to thank Sarah Callander and Mary-Denise Davis of the Office of the Public Defender, for allowing us to attend the 5th Annual Back to the Neighborhood: How to Succeed with a Criminal Record, an event sponsored by the Office of Public Defender and the Justice Policy Institute. Attendees… [Read More]
Violating Federally Required Red Flag Regulation Program?
Employers and property managers/owners are required by federal law to identify, detect, respond and resolve Red Flag discrepancies, when screening prospective employees and prospective residents. The purpose of the Program is to prevent and mitigate Identity Theft and Identity Fraud. Resolving the Red Flag discrepancies is a relative easy, administrative… [Read More]
Compliance Program Committee (CPC) meetings.
The vast majority of recent FCRA related class action law suits, and there are MANY, claim Authorization/Disclosure violations or non-adherence to Adverse Action Notification regulations. The Class Action litigation alleges Authorizations/Disclosures are non-compliant, in part, because Companies insert “extraneous information” within the body of the Authorizations (e.g. waivers, acknowledgments, etc.)…. [Read More]
Employers: Important Details on Background Screening
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 92 million Americans have a criminal history on file. In the event that employers come across an applicant with a criminal record, it is imperative that these employers are aware of their obligations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and an ever… [Read More]
Screening Process Considerations
Did you know that an important consideration for a non-profit or business owners is to place the right people into the positions you need. Sometimes, human error, the stress of running a business or simply the sense that you want to replace the empty position immediately can cause mistakes. Here… [Read More]
Ban the Box – 2015 Update
In a January, 2015 report, reflecting the growing political consensus behind “smart on crime” reforms, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) is making the case for a federal Ban the Box initiative. In great part because more than 100 jurisdictions, including 13 states, the District of Columbia and 96 cities… [Read More]
Safer Business Practices: Shielding Sources
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… [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… [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… [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,… [Read More]
Credibility Interview
Criminal background checks and credit reports are a large part of Pre-Employment investigative consumer reports. There is security in knowing that the information being reported to your company for your applicants is as accurate as possible. How do you know that the prospective employee, Robert Brown, does not have an… [Read More]