EmployeeScreenIQ

Are the criminal background checks being performed on NASA employees a violation of privacy?

The Supreme Court recently announced that it will answer that question about employees at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California who were classified as "low risk", according to an article by Reuters.

The question came about after some longtime employees decided to legally challenge the organization's in-depth checks for information on medical treatment, counseling for drug use, or any other "adverse" information.

After NASA implemented a policy requiring everyone to undergo a background check before being allowed access to the facility, a group of 28 scientists, engineers and administrative personnel sued the organization and challenged the investigations for violating constitutional privacy rights.

Although a federal judge ruled in favor of NASA, a U.S. appeals court disagreed and ruled that NASA should not be allowed to conduct such invasive background checks, but the Obama administration has now appealed to the Supreme Court.

The laboratory, which is owned by NASA and operated by the California Institute of Technology, is known for developing satellites, rockets, spacecraft and telescopes.

NASA currently requires scientists, engineers and all other employees at the laboratory to undergo background investigations. All positions are filled by contract employees, who could be fired if they do not agree to undergo criminal background checks.

Lawyers for NASA have argued that the ruling by the appeals court has prevented the routine background checks of many government contract employees, as well as cast constitutional doubt on a process that has been used for more than 50 years.

Lawyers for the employees, on the other hand, are questioning why NASA decided to implement the background checks for the first time in more than 50 years. They also note that the laboratory is located on an open campus, has limited security and welcomes outside visitors.

Labels: Criminal background checks

Are temp agencies failing to perform proper criminal background checks on nurses? Visit http://employeescreen.com to learn more.

A recent study from the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica found that dozens of staffing agencies are not performing background checks on nurses, while others are ignoring warnings from hospitals about insufficient nurses on their payroll.

The study - which examined disciplinary records, personnel files, court documents and interviews - found that some agencies hire nurses without even interviewing them. That can result in poor care, including workers falling asleep on the job, failing to perform critical tests or stealing drugs meant for patients.

Some agencies included in the study hired nurses who had criminal records or left states where their licenses had been restricted or revoked. In California alone, at least three firms employed a nurse whose license had been suspended in Minnesota for stealing drugs. One firm even hired that same worker after he was convicted of stealing drugs at a nursing home in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Even as hospitals complained about nurses, agencies continued to move them from one facility to another, the study found. For instance, one nurse had racked up more than 12 warnings after ignoring patients and sleeping on the job, but an agency continued to send her to various hospitals. It was found that nurse had previously been convicted of 12 crimes, including prostitution, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of cocaine.

Perhaps most surprisingly, workers who found themselves getting in trouble at one agency seemed to have no problem finding work at other agencies. One nurse from Oklahoma was employed by at least four agencies in Southern California during one year, even though she had been accused of stealing drugs at each firm. Before working at the last firm, that nurse was arrested in Oklahoma for posing as a doctor's office employee and calling in prescriptions.

The practice of making bad nurse hires seems to be more common in states like California, where there is a severe nursing shortage, causing almost every facility to rely on temp workers.

According to a 2008 survey from the State of California, about 6 percent of registered nurses are temp workers. Of those roughly 19,300 people, about half live in other states.

Part of the problem in California is that the state's Board of Registered Nursing does not require hospitals or agencies to report nurse misconduct. Further, a previous study from the same two agencies found that there is often a long delay in disciplining nurses accused of wrongdoing.

Instead of taking more serious action after a nurse has been accused of misconduct, several hospitals simply retrain or monitor those workers after the fact. Temp nurses in particular are often exchanged for replacements without receiving further reprimand or guidance.

Labels: Criminal background checks

Employers in Ohio will now have an easier time performing criminal background checks on potential or current employees.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray recently announced that the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the state Bureau of Motor Vehicles will work together to offer background checks at local deputy registrar offices throughout the state.

The new partnership will create a convenient and low-cost way to obtain background checks. The checks will be obtained through WebCheck, an electronic system that compares fingerprints and demographic data with state and national databases.

The BCI used $300,000 in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to train local deputy registrars and provide equipment. Since October, the BMV has been offering background checks through more than 100 registrar offices and plans to make the service available at more offices during the near future.

"More and more organizations and employers are finding these checks to be an invaluable safety tool," Cordray said. "The range of Ohioans who must obtain these checks has become vast; from doctors to daycare teachers, from church volunteers to construction workers.

"Through our partnership with the Ohio BMV, people all across Ohio will be able to obtain a WebCheck close to home, at the lowest possible cost," he continued. "And that cost will be consistent from one location to the next."

A BCI or state-level background check through the BMV will cost $32, while an FBI or federal-level check will cost $34 and a background check through both databases will cost $61.

In the State of Ohio, background checks are required for employees and volunteers who work directly with children or the elderly, those in law enforcement and corrections; and those in a variety of licensed trades and professions.

Prior to the new collaborative effort, WebCheck was only available at a few BCI locations or through private companies.

Labels: Criminal background checks

Employees in one city are taking fault after requiring job seekers to provide social networking information while undergoing criminal background checks.

According to several reports, three city employees in Bozeman, Montana, were recently disciplined after asking potential candidates to provide information regarding their personal social networking sites. As a result, the assistant city manager, fire chief and human resources director were all put on six months probation.

As we reported in a previous post, city officials were asking any job seeker looking to work for the city to reveal all of their login information to social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, as well as e-mail accounts like Google and Yahoo. At the time, the city claimed this was part of its normal background check procedure.

But news of the new requirement spread quickly and created a controversy, as many people began wondering if the requirement should be considered a violation of potential employees' right to privacy.

Various reports stated that a news station in Montana was informed about the practice. After the news leaked, city officials began receiving one e-mail per minute about the background check policy.

On top of that, an online poll bringing in more than 5,000 votes found that 98 percent of the respondents thought the policy was an invasion of privacy. Those against the policy also quoted Article 2, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution, which states that "the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest."

Soon after, the city suspended its requirement pending "a more comprehensive evaluation." In addition, Facebook officials stated that the city's policy was "a violation of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which received feedback from users and was ultimately approved in a site-wide vote."

Labels: Criminal background checks

While criminal background checks have become commonplace for most school employees, the cost of those checks seems to be continually increasing.

While most residents, employees and officials agree on the importance of background checks in schools, many are taking issue with the rising costs of completing those checks, including employees who have to foot the bill themselves and taxpayers who live in districts where the school provides the checks.

Most recently, those in York County, S.C., learned that background checks for volunteers tripled in cost this year. While the fee for background checks usually comes in at $8, the price increased to $25 this year.

Those checks include reports provided by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division listing any arrests or charges made in state against people applying for school positions, including tutors, chaperones, teachers aides and coaches.

Despite some complaints and the fact that schools aren't required by law to obtain criminal background checks on volunteers, many officials say they aren't willing to skip the procedure and put children's lives in danger.

"We want to know for sure these volunteers have the best interests in mind for our students," Beckye Partlow, executive director of personnel for Rock Hill Schools, told The Herald. "We do not plan to stop doing SLED checks."

While state rules don't allow SLED to charge school districts for background checks of teachers and substitute teachers, the agency is required to charge $8 for checks of mentors and bus drivers and now $25 for all other school volunteers.

"There's been a lot of confusion and inconsistencies among schools on how much they're supposed to pay," SLED's Capt. Andy Jordan told The State. "Some (schools) were doing all checks for free. Some were paying $8 for everyone. Some were paying $25. It was all over the gamut. What we're trying to do is get everyone to follow statute."

While the focus on enforcing state rules will ultimately help many schools, most will be faced with an increase in costs.

Labels: Criminal background checks

The State of Texas is amid a broad effort to conduct criminal background checks, including fingerprints, on teachers, substitutes and classroom aides.

Senate Bill 9, passed in 2007, required all new hires of non-certified employees to undergo fingerprint checks beginning in January 2008. That law further required all certified educators, substitute teachers and classroom aides to have background checks before 2011, regardless of when they were hired.

Texas has been administering fingerprint-based checks for all newly-certified teachers since 2003. Those teachers will not be required by the state to undergo fingerprint checks again, but school districts can require another check.

According to an article by the Star-Telegram, about 12,500 of the 164,000 checks already administered, or about 8 percent, have come back with some sort of hit, which could be an arrest or conviction. Of those results, more than 1,000, or about 9 percent, were for felony crimes.

Doug Phillips, director of investigations and fingerprinting for the Texas Education Agency, said the agency has opened 168 investigations since January of last year. The agency does not keep data on how many cases result in the loss of teaching certification.

"We don't know how many people we've convinced not to teach in Texas or to leave Texas because they've had that criminal history and they don't want to be found," Phillips said in the article. "There's no doubt people left the state or they left teaching because they knew they were going to get nailed."

Many schools in Tarrant County are now getting their turn to administer criminal checks. Grapevine-Colleyville, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw and Crowley were among the districts expected to start administering the checks this summer. The state is sending e-mails to affected employees alerting them they have 80 days to have the checks done.

This upcoming fall, Fort Worth, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Arlington, Keller and Birdville school districts will have their own teachers undergo background checks as well.

Labels: Criminal background checks

The current economic recession, as well as delays in government criminal background checks and new screening procedures, are leaving several port workers without jobs.

The National Employment Law Project recently released a study that found a 2002 law meant to improve security throughout the country's ports has actually resulted in thousands of longshoremen, truck drivers and other employees without jobs for longer than usual.

That law, which was instituted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is making those workers wait an average of seven months for security credentials that they need to return to their jobs or start new ones.

Between October 2007 and June 2009, more than 1.5 million port workers were required to go through the screening process, which is managed by the federal Transportation Security Administration.

In Baltimore - one of the biggest port areas in the nation - 21,060 workers applied for security clearance, but only 18,617 received and activated their credentials by mid-June.

America isn't the only country that has seen port workers suffer at the hands of background check requirements. Officials in Canada recently amped up their security measures for port workers.

A new deal between the federal Department of Transport and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is aimed at eliminating organized crime operatives from restricted areas and improving security for passengers and cargo traveling throughout Canada.

The measures will allow the RCMP to run names of employees seeking security passes in restricted areas through 10 different databases, which include information about complaints, victims, suspects and other criminal intelligence. Also as part of the background checks, authorities will have access to an Interpol database with police information from 187 member countries.

Labels: Criminal background checks