IRC, Inc. has moved  to new facilities. We have a new mailing address and phone and fax numbers. Please make note these changes in your files.

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The EEOC rulings are based on TITLE VII of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. If there are specific takeaways from the EEOC Guidance, one of them would be to stress the importance of evaluating situations on an individual, case-by-case basis before making a hiring decision, rather than applying neutral, blanket approach policies. That is, you can't just have a policy that states that all applicants who have any prior convictions will be disqualified. There are always exceptions according to the EEOC's Guidance and certain industries are subject to Federal mandates requiring organizations to disqualify applicants with a specific conviction(s) in a certain specified number of recent years (i.e. banking and applicants with financial-or fraud-related convictions).

An employers approach should be to individually determine whether an applicants criminal history would have a bearing on his/her consideration for that position. These three items include: 1) the type and seriousness of the criminal conduct; 2) how much time has passed since the criminal conduct took place; and 3) the duties and responsibilities of the specific job.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has exercised its regulatory authority by making a change to three notices required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, effective January 1, 2013.

The change directs consumers, furnishers and users of employee background checks to the CFPB instead of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and are part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub.L. 111-203. H.R. 4173) that was signed into law on July 21, 2010.

While the CFPB does not have supervisory authority over background checks, it does have rule making and enforcement powers over the FCRA.

CFPB has modified the following three forms:

• Summary of Consumer Rights under the FCRA

• Notice to Users of Consumer Reports of their Obligations under the FCRA

• Notice to Furnishers of Information of their Obligations under the FCRA

Each of the three notices is mandated for use in certain situations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The "Summary of Consumer Rights under the FCRA" is a notice that a background screening firm must provide an employer and in turn, the employer must provide the notice to the applicant in specific situations.

The FCRA also mandates that a background screening firm (known as a Consumer Reporting Agency or "CRA") must provide each user (our clients) of its services the "Notice to Users of Consumer Reports of their Obligations under the FCRA".

The "Notice to Furnishers of Information of their Obligations under the FCRA" is aimed at certain furnishers of information to CRA's and must be provided in prescribed situations such as a re-investigation where the consumer disputes the report or in a situation involving identity theft.

The main difference between the old forms and the new forms is informing consumers that they may now obtain information about their rights under the FCRA from CFPB, instead of the FTC. To comply with the new law, employers and CRA's will need to stop using the old forms/notices by the start of 2013.

The new version of the "Summary of Rights" is uploaded on our secured site. You can locate this form in the Documents tab. Also, as always, Information Resources includes the "Summary of Rights" as part of the background check report when we find any derogatory information.

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NORTH CAROLINA E-VERIFY REMINDER!

E-Verify legislation is being phased in gradually in North Carolina according to the number of employees you have.  October 1, 2012 is the date by which the first group of employers that must enroll in E-Verify.  To remind, E-Verify is only to be used to confirm employment authorization for new hires.

Effective Oct. 1, 2012—employers with 500 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify.
Effective Jan. 1, 2013—employers with 100 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify.
Effective July 1, 2013—employers with 25 or more employees will be required to use E-Verify.

The NC Department of Labor will begin accepting complaints against employers in accordance with the above effective dates.

BEWARE OF FAULTY BACKGROUND SCREENING COMPANIES!

In today's high-end unemployment, millions of people are out looking for jobs and many are being denied positions due to inaccurate and illegal information obtained in their criminal background checks. Much of this is due to new and inexperienced companies that do not know or follow laws and regulations of the FCRA. One of the problems in our industry is "companies" that take shortcuts and DO NOT perform the work.

What we have known for years is now coming to the attention of the public. Below is an article written by the Associated Press showing that the government is now examining background screening companies with little or no experience, please read......


WASHINGTON - Thousands of U.S. job hunters are losing out because employers use faulty background-check data drawn from shoddy records, consumer advocates say in a new report.

Those advocates want the government to make sure people know what information prospective employers see, so that errors can be corrected and abusive companies can be held responsible.

Use of criminal-background data is exploding as the economy struggles back from the worst job crisis in decades, the National Consumer Law Center says in the report, which is being released today. To meet surging demand, countless dubious companies have sprouted up, it says.

"It's the Wild West for background-screening report companies," says Persis Yu, lead writer of the report. "They're generating billions in revenue, but they have little or no accountability."

Nearly three-fourths of companies conduct criminal background checks for some job applicants, according to a 2010 study by the Society for Human Resource Management. They buy criminal-background data from providers of all sizes, including national names like LexisNexis as well as upstarts that could include "anyone with a computer, an Internet connection and access to records," the report says.

Data providers obtain information from online public records, private vendors, jails and police blotters, it says. Sloppy handling of that data can cause a search on one person to turn up a rap sheet about someone with a similar name, for example.

Other common errors include displaying criminal records that were supposed to be sealed or wiped clean, misclassifying minor offenses as major crimes and listing charges that have been dismissed.
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IRC, Inc. is introducing NetCheck, a new service which provides employers with research of the internet and social networking sites.

Most companies place great importance, time and money to maintain a "good" image!

Your company expects employees to represent and promote a positive impression to your community.

As technology expands, social activities are now in the public eye more than ever. Some people have articles listing positive contributions and accomplishments, others may have some embarrassing situations.

IRC is offering this new service to provide insight on individuals and to answer questions which normal background services cannot verify.

*SPECIAL PRICING: This new service is being offered at a discounted price for a limited time.

These are just a few of the many sources that we research for information.