Application - Have you ever been convicted...
dwitt
26 Posts
Before I spend alot of time searching for the answer to this question, I thought I might throw it out to the fellow forumites because so often I find your advice helpful!!
My Company is a manufacturing facility. We still use the paper applications for employment to hire production employees. Can we ask this question on the application, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
I'm inclined to say no, but I'm running into a dispute with one of my managers and need to back this up with something concrete. We've run into a situation where we have discovered that an employee is a convicted felon for armed robbery and he wears an electronic monitor on his ankle -the manager wants to let him go. Of course, we can't for that reason, but we don't want to run into this situation in the future. My Manager feels that if the employee had completed an Employment Application and answered "NO" to the felony question, then we could let him go for falsifying his hiring documentation.
We currently hire all employees through a staffing agency and they are supposed to perform a background check, etc. This person slipped through the cracks.
Can we ask this question "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
Thanks!
My Company is a manufacturing facility. We still use the paper applications for employment to hire production employees. Can we ask this question on the application, "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
I'm inclined to say no, but I'm running into a dispute with one of my managers and need to back this up with something concrete. We've run into a situation where we have discovered that an employee is a convicted felon for armed robbery and he wears an electronic monitor on his ankle -the manager wants to let him go. Of course, we can't for that reason, but we don't want to run into this situation in the future. My Manager feels that if the employee had completed an Employment Application and answered "NO" to the felony question, then we could let him go for falsifying his hiring documentation.
We currently hire all employees through a staffing agency and they are supposed to perform a background check, etc. This person slipped through the cracks.
Can we ask this question "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"
Thanks!
Comments
Our application asks, "have you ever been convicted of or pled guilty to a felony or misdemeanor other than a minor traffic violation?"
If this type of question is not permissible, than I need to make some serious changes.
HRVolley
Becky
If you just want to use the question as a way to see if an applicant is being truthful rather than as a sceening tool, be careful how you use a "yes" if you are in one of these states that protect felons.
Would you hire an applicant with 2 prior convictions of assaults on co-workers?
I'll have to check my state regs now too.
Good luck...
I agree with Dutch about going back to the agency on this - I missed that on the first read. They gave you an employee that doesn't meet your requirements.
Best wishes.
Have you been convicted of any law violation (except a minor traffic violation)? ____ Yes ____ No
If yes, give details __________________________________________________________________________________
(A “Yes” answer does not automatically disqualify you from employment, since the nature of the offense, date, and the job for which you are applying is also considered.)
- If they have no license or a history of DUI or other serious driving offenses they are screened out for jobs that require driving a company vehicle, rental or personal vehicle as part of their job. Also, if they can not drive a car safely, I won't put them on a forklift.
- Screen out felony sex, drug and violent offenders to protect our employees and maintain a drug free workplace.
- Look at the types of felony convictions that indicate they really shouldn't be handling company money, have our credit cards, etc.
I use, in most cases the 7 - year approach. Great feedback, I need to change my application language a little.