An accreditation program for background screening agencies created by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) – a nonprofit trade association representing the background screening industry founded in 2003 – is helping to promote ethical business practices and establish standards for background screening firms performing employment background checks in the following areas: consumer protection, legal compliance, client education, product standards, service standards, and general business practices. (more…)

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – has fined 14 New England employers during this fiscal year for various violations that enabled companies to hire illegal workers, according to a news release from ICE. The fines in the New England region, which include two companies in Maine and Massachusetts accounting for over $200,000 of the fine settlements, follow an investigation and audit of Form I-9 documents used to verify the employment eligibility of newly hired workers. (more…)

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) – the agency of the United States Government that enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination – held a meeting Tuesday, July 26, 2011 focusing on the use of criminal records by employers for employment screening background checks, according to the EEOC press release ‘Striking the Balance Between Workplace Fairness and Workplace Safety.’ At the meeting, the Commission was told by experts that employers refusing to hire people with arrest and conviction records even years after they have completed their sentences may cause recidivism and higher social services costs, but also that businesses face confusing and conflicting laws when using sometimes unreliable arrest and conviction records in making employment decisions. (more…)

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue has signed into law the requirement that cities, counties, and businesses in the state employing 25 workers or more use E-Verify, an internet-based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees. The law (House Bill 36) – “An Act To Require Counties, Cities, And Employers To Use The Federal E-Verify Program To Verify The Work Authorization Of Newly Hired Employees” – will be phased in for different employers from October 1, 2011, through July 1, 2013. (more…)

According to a new white paper – ‘Background Check Mobile Phone Apps and Instant Background Check Web Sites: Fast and Easy, But Are They Accurate?’ – users of mobile phone apps and Web sites offering so-called “instant” background checks should be aware that while these services are cheap and easy to use, they may not provide entirely accurate information. Co-written by Attorney Lester Rosen, CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a nationwide background check provider accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), and Kerstin Bagus, Director of Global Compliance at LexisNexis® Screening Solutions, the complimentary white paper is available at http://www.esrcheck.com/Download/.

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