Employer Responsibility - Hiring "Sexual Offender"?

I R HR

I'm HR Mgr for small mfr. If we decide applicant's "past" is not a safety concern and is not detrimental to the job requirements and thus continue the hiring process, what is our responsibility/liability toward other employees? Thanks for your insights and advice.

Gillian3

There is no law that would prohibit your hiring a sexual offender, except for those places where licensing would be an issue. The two things that you should consider is "negligent hiring" and employee morale. Negligent hiring comes up when someone does something that injures someone else - your employee or member of the public - but that wouldn't have occurred if you hadn't hired the person in the first place and you knew, based on the past, that it could occur. This idea will vary in seriousness depending on the court system in each state. The other issue is what your other employees will think. I know of a situation where an employee was rehired after he got out of jail for rape. The person attacked was another employee who was still there. Rehiring was a stupid thing to do, and it created all sorts of havoc, particularly to the victim. You need to give a lot of thought to this before hiring.

pork1

I R HR: Welcome to the forum! I R HR2, Discrimination based on some reason other than physical and mental abilities of a candidate to accomplish the assigned task to an acceptable standard is where one might get in trouble. I agree with Gillian3. The nature of the candidate's offense may shed light on the continuance of the interview and background checks required and the potential environment in which the person will be working. The employer is charged with the responsibility to provide a safe working environment for all employees. If the company goes against the obvious environment situation it could be a "neglectigent hiring" concern. Jail time is not a strong attribute to have on one's resume", but rehab is a plus. I have hired several to work with our animals, none have been in the "big House" due to sexual offenses. However, working with the animals is one thing, working in a closed environment with a team of females only, (the birthing/farrowing barn) would give me concern for the female employees and I believe I might respond with hiring a different candidate.

Good Luck

PORK

Crout

Does your state have a "Megan's Law?" If so, his name and address are going to be registered and published, which could have a tremendous impact on employee morale, along with the standing of your business in the community.