Commission expected to offer guidance to employers on criminal background and credit checks

Next year employers may get some guidance from the EEOC on credit and criminal background checks, Commissioner Vicki Lipnic told the Minnesota State Bar Association on November 17, according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report. As members have heard from EEOC officials at recent network meetings, background checks and their potential disparate impact on certain groups have been an area of interest for EEOC lately. Lipnic told the audience that the commission has been looking at how widespread their use is and whether current EEOC guidance needs to be revised. In the case of criminal background checks, Lipnic suggested that rather than having across-the-board policies, employers might want to consider individualized assessments for applicants in light of the jobs they are applying for. And for credit checks, rather than doing costly screenings of large groups, she suggested, it makes sense for employers to determine for which positions it is truly required.

Lipnic says commission likely to take up issues of credit, criminal background checks, BNA Daily Labor Report, 21 Nov 2011.