(Podcast) California Employment News: Fair Chance Act – A Brief Overview of Employment Criminal Background Checks
California Employment News: Fair Chance Act – A Brief Overview of Employment Criminal Background Checks
AGG Talks: Background Screening - Ban the Box and Fair Chance Hiring Laws: The Year in Review
#WorkforceWednesday: COVID-19 Restrictions Tighten, NYC Fair Chance Act, Biden's Budget - Employment Law This Week®
Washington employers face a wave of new workplace legislation, some of which recently became effective and some that will begin in 2026 and beyond. These new or modified laws address a broad range of topics, many of which...more
In 2018, Washington enacted a Fair Chance Act, requiring covered employers to wait until after considering an applicant to be “otherwise qualified” for the position at issue to inquire about or consider criminal history when...more
In this installment of California Employment News, Ryan Abernethy and Nikki Mahmoudi provide an essential overview of California’s Fair Chance Act—also known as the Ban the Box law. Learn what employers need to know about...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Since 2018, California has had a comprehensive Fair Chance Act (CFCA), which places a number of restrictions on employers using criminal history for hiring and other employment purposes. San Francisco and...more
Starting after Labor Day, employers with jobs located in the unincorporated areas of the County of Los Angeles, including work-from-home and hybrid positions, must comply with the County’s fair chance hiring ordinance. The...more
Effective September 3, 2024, employers with locations or employees (including remote workers) in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County (ULAC) will be subject to a new Fair Chance Ordinance. To say that the new...more
Since California’s enactment of the Fair Chance Act (“Act”) over six years ago, California’s private and county employers with five or more employees have become well-acquainted with the Act’s general prohibition of employers...more
Governor Newsom signed AB 2188, which amends the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) to prohibit discrimination based on off-the-job cannabis use. AB 2188 prohibits most employers from discriminating against a...more
Existing California law regulates inquiries into and the use of criminal history information in hiring and personnel decisions. Existing California law also substantially impedes the ability of employers (and background...more
Effective December 15, 2022, the city of Gainesville became the first jurisdiction in Florida to restrict the use of pre-employment inquiries into an applicant’s criminal history.1 The City has now joined the dozens of other...more
The federal government is the latest employer to adopt fair chance hiring requirements for certain parts of its workforce and contractors. The goal being to assist qualified workers with a criminal history to compete for...more
Year two of the COVID-19 pandemic brought many new legislative changes for New York employers, altering the landscape around workplace safety, employee pay, leave benefits, protected classes and activity, and privacy. Now...more
The New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) was recently amended by Local Law 4, which took effect on July 29, 2021. The Amendment expands the protections of the 2015 Fair Chance Act (FCA) to New York City job applicants...more
The New York City Commission on Human Rights (the “Commission”) has issued updated legal enforcement guidance on the NYC Fair Chance Act (“FCA”) and employers’ consideration of criminal history in hiring and during...more
On July 15, 2021, the New York City Commission on Human Rights (the “NYCCHR” or “Commission”) issued its highly anticipated updated Legal Enforcement Guidance on the Fair Chance Act and Employment Discrimination. ...more
The New York City Council has amended the Fair Chance Act (FCA) to expand employment protections for job applicants and employees with criminal conviction histories. The amendments became law on January 10, 2021, (upon being...more
On December 10, 2020, the New York City Council passed bill Int. 1314-A, which significantly expands the scope of New York City’s “ban-the-box” law, the New York City Fair Chance Act (FCA). The bill would impose significant...more
The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), as amended in 2018, restricts a covered employer’s ability to make hiring decisions based on an individual’s criminal history, including but not limited to court records...more
Federal government contractors will need to be aware of the Fair Chance Act, a recently enacted statute that is scheduled to go into effect on December 20, 2021. The Act is a “ban-the-box” law that prohibits covered...more
With the start of a new year—and a new decade—employers in San Francisco, California, Waterloo, Iowa, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, must follow new “ban-the-box” laws restricting their use of criminal records in hiring and...more
Private employers with federal contracts will soon be prohibited from requesting criminal history information from candidates at the onset of the hiring process; instead, they will have to wait until after an offer is made....more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance (the “FCO”), which was amended as of October 1, 2018, has long required that covered employers provide employees with the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement’s...more
On December 20, 2020, the president signed legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020, which includes the federal Fair Chance Act (“the Act”). The Act prohibits federal contractors that...more
On Sept. 12, 2019, the New York City Council passed a law, Int. 0136-A, that expands the scope of the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) to provide protections for freelancers and independent contractors....more
Employers that use criminal record screening policies must continue to be vigilant about compliance with all applicable laws. Following a multi-million dollar settlement by a leading retailer earlier this year, a recent...more