Employment Screening Tidbits in the News
Babysitting Site Provides Free Background Checks
A local Indiana TV station reports of two online babysitting services that have recently become popular among parents. One of them, Care.com, actually offers free background checks with subscription. One mother says she ended up going with Care.com because “they’d already background-checked everybody.” The site not only connects sitters with parents but also those in need of senior care, tutors and dog walkers.
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Chattanooga Memorial Hospital No Longer Hiring Tobacco Users
According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, starting February 1st anyone offered employment at the hospital will be tested for nicotine during their required drug test. Tobacco users will now have even more incentive to stop their unhealthy habit. “Even nicotine gum or the patch would make a potential employee ineligible.” This new policy change stems from the hospital’s commitment to health and not from the potential savings in health care costs. Even so, some are concerned about possibly discrimination issues. According to Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston School of Public Health, twenty-six states have laws prohibiting such a policy.
“The same rationale that would support not hiring smokers would also support not hiring people who are obese or people who have young children or people who don’t eat nutritious food or people who don’t exercise,” he said. “What it’s basically saying is the private behavior of people in their own homes is somehow relevant to their qualifications to work in a workplace.”
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Indictment Forces Company to Perform Background Checks
In an article posted by the Zanesville Times Recorder, one of the owners of a masonry company had been indicted for 10 counts of sex offenses including rape in 2009. The incident took place at the new Zanesville high school. Genaro Rosas was indicted in a Franklin County Common Pleas Court but court records show he was never served. He was finally arrested on May 26, and was indicted in July. As a result of concerned citizens this incident was brought to the attention of the Ohio School Facilities Commission.
“As soon as the district was made aware of this information, the administration immediately contacted Phoenix Masonry through its legal counsel and demanded that Mr. Rosas not be present at or around any school facilities where minor children frequent,” Martin said. “In addition, the board is requiring that Phoenix Masonry conduct background checks for all its employees and representatives who will be present on Zanesville school property.”
The company says they are “more than willing to comply with ZCS’s request to conduct background checks on employees working at the site and is considering making background checks for employees mandatory before hiring.”
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