Home Incarceration

DebbieW · March 2004

We have an employee in our Ohio office who was recently placed on Home Incarceratin for Domestic Violence. The HR Coordinator accessed the Public Court Records for this individual and found that he had been arrested for Disorderly Conduct, Minor Misdemeanor Drug Abuse, Possession of Drugs, Public Gaming and Disorderly Conduct over the last three years. On his employment application he marked that he had never been convicted or pled guilty to a felony or misdemeanor. My question is, since we don't typically do background checks, were we okay to access public records on this employee to find out his background and can we terminate because of the knowledge that we now have, for falsifying his employment application.

marc · March 2004

Start with your application. Does it include the warning that falsification of information can lead to termination? Many handbooks address the companies stance on felony and misdemeanor convictions, if yours does, then you have some guidelines to follow.

Finally, I think you are OK with a termination, I just get a little heartburn about not following these policies consistently with all EEs. So you did a special background check on this EE, was he employed with you during the other convictions?

What about your other EEs? You now understand why background checks are important, who else is on the payroll that may have similar skeletons in the closet?

Don D · March 2004

Notwithstanding the ills that may or may not apply to other employees, I would say that if your application carries a termination disclaimer for falsification and the deeds occured prior to hire, you certainly have grounds for termination for falsification of the application. This sounds like a substantial sh*t-pot full of misdeeds for one employee, no matter what the occupation. I would certainly lean toward termination.

Note: The preceeding is my personal opinion and has no value beyond that. Although it may be 'sorta offensive' or 'indeed offensive' to someone out there, it is offered without regard to that possibility. Should you find yourself alarmed by my post, you may privately mail me to protest or you may alert the principal's office. x:-)

swatts · March 2004

But you are saying that his record shows that he has been arrested for these offenses. You indicate that your employment application asks if he has been convicted or pled guilty. Being arrested isn't the same as being convicted.

Pork · March 2004

SWATTS: Welcome to the HR forum, and the best there is. You hit the "nail on the head"; conviction is the important word. Lying on the application about these matters will get one terminated in this company.

On the other hand, "convicted, served, and released employees make good employees. We are in contact with a previous employee who is going up to see his parole board in a couple of weeks. His counselor called and I forwarded a letter to the board in support of this individual. Not only was he a good "HOG breeder", but an entergetic and willing team player before he got picked up,jailed, and returned to Texas to complete a previous sentence that was not on his application. We did not have to face the issue of "application lying"! His history as an employee makes us glad that we did not catch the lie on the application.

PORK

ritaanz · March 2004

Can I ask the obvious? If this employee is on house arrest, how can he come to work? Shouldn't your attendance policy take care of this?

DebbieW · March 2004

He is on house arrest, however, in Kentucky they are allowed to go to work with a monitor on. Also, to clarify, he was convicted on the above charges.

Debbie

ritaanz · March 2004

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-29-04 AT 03:21PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Here we call those work release programs.

What I found interesting in your post was the ability of your HR Coordinator to access this info on line. How does he/she do this?

DebbieW · March 2004

She went on the internet and put in the county and state that the employee lived in. Once it pulls up the county you can do a public record search. That is where she found the convictions. The records search will show the person's name, and date of birth to help verify it is the correct individual.

Debbie

Gillian3 · March 2004

Ritaanz is correct - go with termination for attendance problems, because then you don't have to worry about whether it was proper to do a background check on a selective basis or whether or not he falsified anything. He did not falsify his application unless he was acually convicted and the rap sheet apparently doesn't show that.

FHR · March 2004

I believe in some cases of house arrest the person can go to work but nothing else.

Don D · March 2004

Had a female employee once who always wore pants, never a skirt. One day her britches leg rode up enough to show this huge black strap around her ankle with a box the size of a pager almost. It was her 'house arrest' tracker. I think it worked like a dog collar with the electrical alert. She was allowed only to come to the job and straight home. It wasn't work release since it allowed only that limited movement and was in lieu of incarceration. She had worked at a jail and had 'accidentally' left the cell and jailhouse door open on her shift. She had obviously falsified her application but the VP of HR decided to let her stay. I'm wondering why this post is relevant and maybe it's not.

Note: The preceeding is my personal opinion and has no value beyond that. Although it may be 'sorta offensive' or 'indeed offensive' to someone out there, it is offered without regard to that possibility. Should you find yourself alarmed by my post, you may privately mail me to protest or you may alert the principal's office. x:-)

Balloonman · March 2004

Slow day Don? LOL

My $0.02 worth!
DJ The Balloonman

Paul in Cannon Beach · March 2004

It seems ironic to me that a person convicted of "domestic violence" would be placed under house arrest and required to stay at home.

Does anyone know if using an internet site to access background information would be considered a "third party" and therefore you would need to notify the ee if your findings lead to an adverse employment action (termination)?

Just wondering...

cthr · March 2004

It probably doesn't qualify as a third party, but some states require that you notify employees/prospective employees that you are going to do a background check, what the scope of the is, and they must authorize it.

I guess the question would be why did you run a background check on this person, if it is not your usual procedure?

Golf · March 2004

I went to county and state, then to public records --- in our state you have to go in person and pay a small fee to see someone’s records.

Home Incarceration

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