If you haven’t heard of “Ban the Box,” it’s basically where companies forgo the section on employment applications asking possible employees to self-identify as having a criminal background. Proponents argue that this is helpful as it allows individuals who don’t run the risk of reoffending to get and maintain employment, reinforcing the very concept that they will be even less likely to reoffend given their employment status.
Anyway, all this aside, even though Target has been one of the biggest and most popular proponents of “Ban the Box,” it has recently come about that Target has been using other means to characterize possible employees prior to hiring them. The complaint alleges in this case states that after Target issued something called a “conditional offer of employment,” they would run a background check on applicants looking at their criminal record.
This seems to run counterintuitive to Targets “Ban the Box” policies, although Target is alleging that it is following best business practices by putting out the conditional job offer before running such checks. Parties harmed by this state that this is unfair of Target because the jobs they are seeking, typically entry level jobs such as food service workers, shelf stockers and cart attendants are unlikely to need a clean record. Thoughts?
This is very interesting. I like the effort that Target is making to “ban the box” and I think that has a lot of benefits, but I think that Target is taking a little more heat than they deserve for running background checks. As law students applying for the bar, we know that our criminal background/history and our character & fitness will be put under a microscope, but that is the Bar Associations way of trying to weed out applicants that may abuse their power as a lawyer. I understand that working at Target is very different than being a lawyer, but I think Target should have every right to screen applicants for a history of violent crimes or crimes including theft. It is nearly impossible to pass the character and fitness portion of the bar application if you have been convicted of a crime that calls an applicants moral turpitude into question because it is exactly what the Bar Association is trying to avoid. I am pretty sure that Target does not want their own employees abusing their power and stealing from the store and they should be allowed to use criminal background checks to weed out people who have been convicted of theft crimes in the past. It seems pretty reasonable for them to also screen out applicants that have been convicted of violent crimes, for the sake of the safety of other employees and customers.