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October, 2012:
Are you running Criminal Background Checks on your shop personnel?

If you are conducting a criminal background check on propective employees before you hire them, it can now be no-win situation. You want to avoid hiring a dangerous criminal but now you have to worry about what you do with the information. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued a new warning to discourage companies from discriminating against minorities for petty crimes such as drug possession. Statistics show the drug war have affected minorities much harder than whites. It seems that the USA has reached a point in the 40 year long drug war where it is getting difficult to find male minority job applicants who do not already have a criminal record as a result.

This new EEOC recommendation may especially apply to the male dominated world of machine shops and fabrication shops where there is more acceptance of workers with a checkered past. Many prisons offer metalworking training and work programs. To help guide employers, the EEOC recommends that companies consider three things; the type of criminal record, how it relates to the job, and how long ago the crime was committed. The EEOC also believes that propective employee should be given the chance to explain their past mistakes before an employer makes a final hiring decision.

If an employer is trying to use information from background checks to avoid hiring people with high absenteeism and on-the-job accidents, then they should test applicants for alcohol use since alcohol is one of the largest causes of accidents and absenteeism. Finally, if you wont hire them.....who will? And if nobody will hire them.....guess what type of work they will need to do to support themselves!

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