FCRA - giving applicants a copy of their consumer report

cbourb

My understanding of the FCRA is that if you use a background check vendor to confirm education, dates of employment, eligibility for rehire etc, you must provide the applicant a copy of the entire report if you decline to hire them b/c of something you discovered in the report.

Am I understanding this correctly? If any of you out there are in the practice of giving applicants the report you received from the background check vendor, I would be very interested in finding out if this is a smooth process. Do you have applicants complaining to you about what is in the report? I am fine with talking to the applicant to straighten out potential date discrepencies etc. My concern would be that if the report listed comments about the applicant from a previous supervisor that were not flattering (i.e. he was kind of lazy and had an attitude problem), the applicant would call me up to plead his case for why those statements were not true. Or, the applicant would call his former employer to complain and then I'd have former employers mad and never willing to talk again.

Is this really what everyone does...give the full report...or do some of you just do the references yourself so you don't have to share the info???

Thanks!

cthr

I've never given a copy of the report unless the applicant requested it in writing-which has never happened. We conduct criminal as well, and those times I have sent a letter, which the vendor supplied, informing them of our rescinding the job offer and who the service was that we used so that they could contact them.

The FCRA says "upon your request, anyone who considers information from a CRA and who takes unfavorable action toward you, must give you the name, address and phone number of the CRA that reported the information."

Zanne

We do a credit report from Equifax. We have had people with errors on their credit reports.

Equifax furnishes a letter that goes with the credit report and we give the applicants the whole thing.

Zanne

Shadowfax

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-03-03 AT 03:33PM (CST)[/font][p]It's been awhile since I looked into this but if I recall correctly, if the report is used in any way as the basis for an adverse decision, you not only have to give them a copy of the report, but a copy of the Summary of Your Rights pamphlet BEFORE taking the adverse action, Of course there are a couple of other statutory notices required before and after the report is obtained, and criminal records, even if provided by a police agency fall under the FCRA, so this is a very sensitive area with substantial penalties. As I recall the language of the notices was pretty well established by the statute, and not much room for deviation. I'd check this out with counsel.
I just now had a chance to get back to this and IF adverse action is taken, then you must give the applicant a notice of the action, name and address and ## of reporting agency, notice the agency did not take the action and cannot give the applicant the reason for the action and notice of right to dispute the accuracy of the information in the report. The FTC has several publications outlining rights and duties, including the Rights pamphlet, which is easier to provide than writing your own summary.