Wed, 12 Aug 2009

Will Your Credit Report Disqualify You For a Job?

I've run into this craziness before, and must ask again How Has It Come to This? What in the world does my credit report have to do with my ability to do work? Could bad credit be a distraction? Certainly - but so could an obsession with orchid growing or Harley-Davidson's. There is still such a thing as a personal life, but we'd better be defending the concept while we can, because it appears to be going the way of the dodo rather rapidly.

Two companies that fired workers and rejected job applicants based on background checks, without informing those people of their rights, have settled with the FTC for $77,000 in civil penalties. Most experts we talked to think this case is just the tip of the iceberg. The companies — Quality Terminal Services and Rail Terminal Services — were charged with violating provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires employers to get permission to look at individual credit reports. If you don't get a job because of information in your report, the employer must show you the report and tell you how to get a copy from the consumer reporting company. There is no charge for the report if you request it within 60 days of getting notice that you did not get a job.

(link) [Slashdot]

/Politics | 1 writeback | permanent link

On 8/12/2009 14:19:10
Diana wrote

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