Company charging a fee to verify employment information.

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?

Comments

  • 7 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • I cant think of why it would be illegal but I think its foolish. Here is why (and correct me if I am wrong).

    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.
  • I have found that several of the larger distribution centers,warehouses and "super" stores in our area outsource their employment verifications to companies that charge set fees for particular types of verification. I have been told it is cheaper for them to do this than to provide staff to respond to employment verifications. Unfortunately, it is perfectly legal.
  • I probably would be willing to pay a fee IF......the information I receive about the applicant contains more than dates of employment and job title.

    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.
  • Unfortunately, Rita, you are correct. Position, hire date and term date seem to be the only info you get. I will not even verify dates of employment without an authorization and release signed by the employee.
  • My boss and his partners were talking to a company that touted their "on boarding process". In plain English, it was an orientation program that they designed for your company.

    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!
  • I get this quite often from larger employers. I think it sucks, but I guess these days it's the cost of doing business!

    If it's an applicant that we really like, we'll normally pay the $15.
  • Our company has outprocessed this for years. And so did my last company. We use The Work Number. I love it, as it takes a LOT off our plates - doing more with less employees so something has to be outsourced.
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