State Agency to Issue Restrictions on Criminal History Screening
March 6, 2017
Following the lead of a handful of local ordinances around the
country, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, the state’s
Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) is finalizing a
regulation restricting California employers from using a person’s
criminal history information in making employment decisions. The
regulation will apply to applications for employment as well as
decisions affecting existing employees.
State law does not list as a protected class individuals with
criminal backgrounds. The FEHC bases the regulation on federal
EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) guidance and
judicial cases that interpret it. The agency also explicitly
incorporates principles of disparate impact discrimination into
the regulation. This means that liability may attend if it is
shown that members of a protected class have criminal histories
disproportionate to their number, and thus applying a screen
would disproportionately affect individuals in that class. The
regulation includes a provision that makes is a rebuttable
defense of a claim if an employer complies with other state and
federal laws that require or allow such employment screening.
See CBA’s Regulatory Compliance Bulletin for more information.