August

"A $1.8 million class action settlement has been reached to resolve charges against Home Depot over allegedly violating the FCRA by not having proper background check forms for its job applicants. According to the agreement, Class Members will receive anywhere from $15 to $100. The proposed class includes about 120,000 individuals who applied for jobs with Home Depot, in which the alleged illegal background check forms were used, beginning in April 24, 2011 to May 11, 2015. ""In addition to this monetary relief, Home Depot has agreed to no longer use the offending forms, and to use a background check form that complies with the FCRA,"" the motion to approve the Home Depot class action settlement says. According to the Home Depot class action lawsuit, the retailer ""violated the FCRA by including releases of liability in their preauthorization background and|or credit check disclosure forms."""

"Koch Industries, Inc. 's announcement that it will remove conviction history questions from its job applications is the latest sign that momentum for criminal justice reform and fair-hiring practices is building on both sides of the political aisle and across the business community. Koch Industries, a major funder and advocate of criminal justice reform, joins Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, and other large national employers in adopting ban-the-box. ""The fact that more and more of our nation 's major employers�including a company like Koch Industries that is synonymous with conservative politics�are choosing to embrace fair-chance hiring policies shows that this is an idea with broad appeal whose time has come,"" said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project."

"A construction worker who lost his job on Apple 's new campus because of a 2008 felony conviction said he filed a complaint with the EEOC alleging discrimination. The complaint could trigger an investigation of the tech giant 's hiring practices, which became the subject of controversy when Apple was barring felons from construction jobs. If the commission sues, it could chart legal territory regarding criminal histories and employment. The commission has sued companies like BMW and Dollar General for their hiring practices involving criminal background checks. Those cases are still pending. But experts say there have been relatively few legal challenges. ""It is somewhat an underdeveloped area of the law,"" said Lisa Klerman, director of the USC Gould School of Law Mediation Clinic."