St. Petersburg FL to Ban the Box Starting January 1

Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn

Beginning January 1, 2015, St. Petersburg, Florida will Ban the Box on job applications for the city that asks applicants if they have a criminal record, according to a report on SaintPetersBlog.com available at http://www.saintpetersblog.com/archives/163633.

SaintPetersBlog.com reports that St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman made the announcement about the Ban the Box proposal and is quoted as saying: “This is good for our economy. This is good for public safety.”

The Ban the Box proposal “doesn’t eliminate background checks or even asking the question” but delays the criminal history inquiries until later in the hiring process. The Ban the Box change will affect only city jobs and not private sector jobs. The Ban the Box policy also allows background checks for city jobs and mandates them for public safety positions to be reviewed later in the hiring process, SaintPetersBlog.com reports.

The Ban the Box movement is spreading across the United States. According to a Ban the Box Guide from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), approximately 70 U.S. cities and counties as well as 13 states have passed Ban the Box legislation. More information about Ban the Box from NELP is available at http://www.nelp.org/page/content/banthebox/.

MORE BAN THE BOX INFORMATION FROM ESR

Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) offers a Ban the Box web page with links to the latest news and information about the Ban the Box movement at https://www.esrcheck.com/Ban-the-Box/. To read more Ban the Box blogs from ESR News, visit https://www.esrcheck.com/wordpress/tag/ban-the-box/. To learn more about ESR, call Toll Free 888.999.4474 or visit https://www.esrcheck.com/.

BAN THE BOX WEBINAR

Attorney Lester Rosen, founder and CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR) and author of “The Safe Hiring Manual,” will present a webinar titled ‘Ban the Box – What Employers Need to Know’ on Wednesday, November 12, 2014  from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM PST to show how Ban the Box laws that remove questions about criminal records of applicants from job applications are fast becoming a national standard that will soon affect all employers. To register, please visit http://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4488944598710491905.