Effective October 1st, significant changes will take effect that will impact your use of criminal history in employment-related decisions in California.
Amended Regulations – Highlights: • Expand the definition of “applicant” to include any screening performed on employees as well. • Prohibit any use or inquiry into criminal history information before a conditional offer. This includes conducting a criminal background check. (Note: there are limited exemptions included in the Regulations to this prohibition). • Impact the individualized assessment process by outlining several factors that, at a minimum, must be considered. • Impact the adverse action process: • Specific information is required in the pre-adverse and final adverse action letters. The Civil Rights Department has published sample letters that employers may use but are not required to use. • Waiting period remains the same (at least 5 business days), but the waiting period cannot start until the notice is received. • The “date of receipt” varies depending on method of send. If notice does not provide a confirmation of receipt (such as a tracked delivery) then the notice will be deemed received: (i) for email, 2 business days after it is sent; (ii) for mail, 5 calendar days after delivery for California addresses, 10 calendar days for outside of California address and 20 calendar days for outside of the US addresses.
What is Asurint doing? We are actively reviewing adverse action system functionality to determine how best to support the change in waiting period measurement. Clients that use Asurint’s system to send adverse action letters will receive additional information in the coming weeks.
We are also reviewing our sample pre-adverse and final adverse action letters. If changes are made, we will ensure they are distributed.
Finally, we’re here for you. We know these changes can be confusing, challenging and not ideal to manage. If you have any questions or concerns, you can always contact our Compliance team at compliance@asurint.com. We’re happy to answer your emails, hop on a call or provide any educational information to help you navigate this situation.