The purpose of our service is to protect your company from employees that may cause harm to its business and/or reputation.  Through a thorough screening process, we provide a consumer report regarding each individual’s background - to include all information gathered through persons that have knowledge of the individual.  Keep in mind, however, that under federal law the information we provide may result in what is commonly termed an “adverse action”.

In the case of a adverse action, the individual in question may be denied employment, terminated, have a job offer rescinded or denied a promotion.  In all cases where an adverse action may result, you must take the following steps to legally protect yourself.

Pre-adverse Action-  A “pre-adverse action disclosure” must be made in writing to the applicant or employee along with a copy of the consumer report and the consumer’s rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act*.  This notification informs the individual that the information obtained in the consumer report may be used, in whole or in part, in the decision to deny employment.

Once issued, you must allow ample time for the client or applicant to receive all items.

Post-adverse Action-   If you proceed with the adverse-action, the individual must be notified in writing or orally that the information contained in the consumer report lead (in whole or in part) to the decision to terminate. 

More importantly, the information supplied to the client at this time must contain:

• - A statement confirming that the consumer reporting agency did not have a role in the decision to terminate, and cannot answer questions regarding the reason for termination.
• - The information (name, address, phone) regarding the consumer reporting agency that provided the report. This is necessary so that the individual may dispute any information the report contains.
• - A notice informing the client that they do have a right to dispute the information contained in the consumer report, and that they are entitled to an additional free consumer report upon request within 60 days.

Please be mindful that these steps are further explained on the Federal Trade Commission’s website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/credempl.htm.  

 The consumer report policies are modified for certain positions such as those for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) regulation, which has independent authority to set its own worker qualifications.
*A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 10:16 am and is filed under Background Checks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.