O’Malley signs environmental bills, Phylicia’s Law

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: May 2, 2012
Tags: bill signing, employers, facebook, flush tax, General Assembly, gov. martin o'malley, job applicants, Phylicia Barnes, phylicia's law, septic systems, signature

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has put his signature on 294 bills passed by the legislature this year. O’Malley signed the bills, which included his initiatives to increase the state’s so-called flush tax and limit where new septic systems can be placed, during more than two-hour long ceremony Wednesday afternoon. The flush-tax proposals will [...]

Basing hiring decisions on criminal history may violate civil rights law, EEOC warns

BY: Steve Lash
POSTED: April 29, 2012
Tags: civil rights, eeoc, hiring, job applicants, laws, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, violation
Comments: 2

Andrew M. Dansicker favors the EEOC’s revision of its criminal-history guidance, saying he has represented middle-aged black employees who were denied promotion because of decades-old arrests for minor crimes. Employers ‘are knocking out a big percentage of the applicant pool based on something that may have no relevance to their job,’ he says.

Employers beware: Your prohibition on hiring job applicants with arrest or conviction records could land you in trouble with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In a new guidance to employers, job applicants and its own investigators, the EEOC states that a blanket prohibition could screen out qualified black and Hispanic job applicants, violating federal [...]

Facebook warns employers not to demand passwords

BY: Associated Press
POSTED: March 23, 2012
Tags: associated press story, facebook, job applicants, job interview, legal action, passwords, social network

NEW YORK — Facebook is warning employers not to demand the passwords of job applicants, saying that it’s an invasion of privacy that opens companies to legal liabilities. The social networking company is also threatening legal action. An Associated Press story this week documented cases of job applicants who are being asked, at the interview [...]