Last week, a press release from the New York Attorney General’s office raised some eyebrows about background screening practices — not an uncommon headline these days.
According to the release, “Four of the nation’s largest background check agencies” entered into an agreement with New York state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman (right) concerning compliance with New York laws designed to protect job applicants from discrimination.
The agreement prohibits the firms from engaging in the automatic disqualification of applicants who have criminal backgrounds — something that we can all agree is a bad practice.
Based on the information contained in the press release, the named companies were called out for sending automatic rejection letters to candidates with criminal records. (more…)