Company charging a fee to verify employment information.
GJohnson
38 Posts
My sister's husband works for a grocery warehouse in Reno. Due to economic slow down, they have laid off a number of employees and have reduced the work week for those still employed.
She said that for some time the company has been charging employees $15 to verify employment to lenders etc.
Some of the laid off employees have interviewed with other employers. My brother in law has indicated that when the potential new employer requests employment verification that the company is telling them they will have to pay a $30 processing fee to provide the information. Naturally, the potential employer isn't willing to pay a fee for the information and isn't willing to consider the candidate without it.
Aside from being counter productive (why wouldn't you want laid off employees to get hired somewhere to reduce unemployment costs), is this legal?
She said that for some time the company has been charging employees $15 to verify employment to lenders etc.
Some of the laid off employees have interviewed with other employers. My brother in law has indicated that when the potential new employer requests employment verification that the company is telling them they will have to pay a $30 processing fee to provide the information. Naturally, the potential employer isn't willing to pay a fee for the information and isn't willing to consider the candidate without it.
Aside from being counter productive (why wouldn't you want laid off employees to get hired somewhere to reduce unemployment costs), is this legal?
Comments
Grocery warehouse lays off Joe Hothead who has a history of physical altercations with other co-workers. Joe Hothead applies to work at Mr. Cheap Employer. Mr. Cheap Employer decides he can't afford to pay $15 just to verify employment and figures all he will get are dates of employment anyways so he hires Joe Hothead.
Joe Hothead starts working and gets enraged by just how cheap Mr. Cheap Employer is and goes ballistic. He ends up assaulting a co-worker and the co-worker files a suit alleging negligent hiring.
The suit eventually brings very negative attention on Grocery warehouse and their $15 verification fee. Perhaps the assaulted employee goes after Grocery warehouse alleging their policy of charging for employment verification created the situation where Joe Hothead was hired.
To me its just a bad idea. We employers need to be MORE willing to share information, not less willing.
It would be worth it to my company if I knew about their attendance, work performance, job skills, reason for termination, etc. But I doubt you would get any of that stuff no matter how much you paid.
I feel that employers are not willing to share because I think they are afraid of retribution from the applicant . If their former empoyer gives honest info, and that causes them not to be hired, all kinds of law suits pop up.
In the presentation, they said that they had people avaiilable to do your interviews, check references, do testing, pre-emplyment drug screening, and probably walk your dog.
When they got to the check references part, they emphasized how important it was to get references from previous employers. So, I asked them if they had a way to do a thorough reference check. The owner of the company looked at me as if I has asked her something obscene. I then told her all I was able to get from previous employers was dates and title. What was her secret. She mumbled something about her people calling constantly until they got the info they needed. Right!
If it's an applicant that we really like, we'll normally pay the $15.