A recent report on WHNT News 19 in Huntsville, AL has raised some interesting debate about background checks with regard to temporary employees and temp agencies. An anonymous employee sent News 19 a letter that questioned Huntsville schools using temporary employees from multiple temp agencies for different jobs in the schools. The non-profit firm Phoenix [...]
Employment Screening Discrimination Still Major Problem
I recently revisited an MSNBC story posted in August of 2010 and was reminded that we still have a long way to go toward reaching some kind of consensus regarding discrimination in criminal background check policies. The fact that Dollar General Corp. is involved in an EEOC dispute over discrimination involving its policies drives this [...]
New Jersey EMS Background Check Bill Sparks Controversy Again
Back in January of last year, New Jersey Governor Christopher J. Christie vetoed an EMS bill that intends to mandate background checks on all EMS workers, including volunteers. There are loud proponents of the bill, obviously citing safety issues, but it got ugly. Apparently, the proponents have a “smear campaign” wherein they’re suggesting that EMT [...]
Background Checks are Worthless If Not Completed
Last week a story was released about a defrocked priest working for the Transporation Security Administration (TSA) at Philadelphia International Airport. The story goes that in 2002, just months after being defrocked by the Diocese of Camden, Thomas Harkins landed a security job with the TSA. The report specified that as a security officer his [...]
Dollar General and Discriminatory Background Checks
Last month one of America’s largest discount retail chains found itself under scrutiny by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over their company policies regarding criminal background checks on job candidates. It’s the latest example of the risks employers take by running background checks. It’s not the background checks themselves, which are widely recognized as [...]
NFL Replacement Ref Situation a Microcosm Of Corporate America?
I know this may sound like a stretch, but the fan uproar over consistent bad calls by the National Football League’s replacement refs and team ownership standing their ground by refusing a new deal with a pension plan for the regular refs paints a vivid picture of how corporate America tends to create its own [...]
Background Checks Needed for Little League Coaches
I remember my days in elementary school in PE class where there were a couple of coaches that got away with aggressive behavior that would never be tolerated today. Intermittent abusive language, favoritism (mostly girls, go figure) and insults went mostly unreported and were reluctantly accepted. I wasn’t very athletic, was tall for my age [...]







