PC and Criminal Background Checks

[Geee]

American Thinker:

Wow! Talk about political correctness (PC) run amok. This has to be the most outrageous antic by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) since last year's debacle against Pepsi, and the 2009 shakedown of Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. The EEOC, using our tax dollars, is actually suing two companies that do not permanently employ people who have criminal records: BMW and Dollar General. It seems that the EEOC found what it characterized as "statistical disparities" in the hiring rates of "blacks and nonblacks" after BMW and Dollar General ran criminal background checks on prospective employees.

In what has to be the doings of some crazy and/or power-mad people, the EEOC issued guidelines in 2012 that cautioned companies against not hiring minority applicants who have committed a crime. The EEOC actually recommended that companies eliminate policies that "exclude people from employment based on a criminal record."

The EEOC says that criminal background checks eliminate potential employees, and that employers should review each applicant and take the crime into consideration. The EEOC says that an automatic hiring ban of people found to have criminal records is tantamount to discriminating against black job applicants, which is, in its opinion, a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But nowhere can I find any guidance from the EEOC regarding "consideration." The EEOC is quick to condemn and sue companies, yet it offers no guidance.