Colorado Becomes the Ninth State to Prohibit Employers from Using Credit Information in Employment

Effective July 1, 2013, Colorado will be the 9th state to restrict an employer's right to use credit reports in employment decisions.

Some Important Information About the Act

Specifically, the bill:

Prohibits an employer's use of consumer credit information for employment purposes if the information is unrelated to the job;

Maryland Passes New Ban the Box Legislation on Public Job Applications

Ban the box is official in Maryland for state government employees only.  Governor Martin O’Malley signed SenateBill 4 (SB4).  This legislation does not apply to private employers.

Washington State Legislators Withdraw Bill Allowing Employers to Access Social Media Accounts During Investigations

A proposed bill amendment in Washington’s state legislature that could have allowed employers the right to demand access to employees’ social media accounts during company investigations has been withdrawn this week. In January, state senators introduced S.B. 5211 to prevent employers from asking current and prospective employees to provide their social media passwords.

Minnesota Enacts “Ban the Box Law" Prohibiting Employment Application Criminal History Checkmark Boxes and Restricting Criminal Record Inquiries Until After Interviews or Conditional Job Offers

Effective January 1, 2014, recent amendments to Minnesota law will restrict the timing of pre-employment inquiries by most private employers into a candidate’s criminal past. Employers who are not exempted from the law may not (1) inquire into or consider or require disclosure of criminal record information until the applicant has been selected for an interview or, if there is not an interview, until a conditional job offer of employment has been extended to the applicant, and (2) use any form of employment application that seeks such criminal record information. 

Minnesota §364.021, the law reads: “A public or private employer may not inquire into or consider or require disclosure of the criminal record or criminal history of an applicant for employment until the applicant has been selected for an interview by the employer or, if there is not an interview, before a conditional offer of employment is made to the applicant. This section does not apply to the Department of Corrections or to employers who have a statutory duty to conduct a criminal history background check or otherwise take into consideration a potential employee's criminal history during the hiring process.

This statute does not prohibit an employer from notifying applicants that law or the employer's policy will disqualify an individual with a particular criminal history background from employment in particular positions.”

Proposed E-Verify Bill

On April 26th, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) introduced H.R. 1772, which would mandate the use of the E-Verify employment eligibility verification system to evaluate the legal status of new hires by companies with 10,000 or more employees. The bill would provide that a person or entity is considered to have complied with the legislation, notwithstanding a technical or procedural failure, if there was a good faith attempt to comply.

Read more here.

E-Verify Survey

On April 30th, the National Restaurant Association and ImmigrationWorks USA released a survey of restaurant

owners, which found that:

·    23% use E-Verify to check the immigration status of new hires;

·    80% would recommend E-Verify to a colleague;

·    79% responded that the E-Verify system has been 100% accurate; and

·    55% responded that the pool of applicants seeking employment in their business has not changed

since starting to use the E-Verify system.

Read the results of the survey here.

Aurico Named as a Finalist in the 2013 American Business Award

Aurico was named a Finalist today in the category of New Product or Service of the Year - Software - Human Capital Management Solution for our WebACE™ platform in The 2013 American Business Awards, and will ultimately be a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie® Award winner in the program.

The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. 

The American Business Awards will be presented at two awards events: the ABA's traditional banquet on Monday, June 17 – in Chicago for the first time, after 10 years in New York; and the new product & technology awards event on Monday, September 16 in San Francisco.