Sept 23 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is facing a proposed class action claiming it illegally used a California sex offender website to conduct background checks on job applicants.
Miguel Lerma, who was convicted of rape nearly a decade ago, filed a complaint in Los Angeles federal court on Thursday claiming Amazon and a background check provider, Accurate Background Inc, violated state and federal laws by using the website and considering older convictions for sex offenses in screening applicants.
Lerma says he was offered a job at an Amazon Fresh grocery store in March, but Amazon reneged after Accurate Background reported that he had been convicted of felony sex offenses. Lerma last year had cleared a background check for a seasonal job at an Amazon fulfillment center, according to the complaint.
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Megan’s Law prohibits employers from denying jobs to applicants because their names appear on the website unless they do so “to protect a person at risk.” A different California law bars reporting agencies such as Accurate Background from providing employers with criminal records that are more than seven years old.
I hope the plaintiff wins!!!
Good for him. Almost one million “Registered Sex Offenders,” many homeless, this needs to be done! America is the Land of Scams. Prove me wrong.
Good job, this is how things will get done. Stop letting people walk over us.
I had the same thing happen to me back in 2015. I received a formal offer of employment from a very well known large company in the area where I live. I signed all documents etc and was scheduled to start my training 1 week later. I received an email from the recruiter (from the employer) and an email from corporate on the same day advising me that because of my background check results my offer was being pulled.
An attorney from the state where corporate HQ was located picked up my case for free. He took all of the steps needed to pursue this issue as they violated the FCRA by not allowing me to verify etc the results etc, they just pulled the offer.
The attorney in that state was unable to find an attorney in my state to work with him because of my type of conviction so it went no where and the company got away with it.
The firm is also engaging in age discrimination too. I cannot speak for their corporate operation, but in the distribution hubs you’ll find only young people.
How much do you want to bet that he’ll win the case, but Amazon will start hiring “vulnerable people” in order to continue denying registered persons a job?
I don’t get his argument. On my background check nothing comes up at 10 years, expect being on the national registry. That had to come us on his. How does he know they actually went on Megan’s Law website?
Had something similar happen in CA, but I came out on top.
The law is very clear in CA: persons at risk are usually kids and elderly and you usually have to be in a supervisory role. Other than that, it’s discriminatory.
Amazon for so long has probably just considered it the cost of doing business, but finally someone stepped up. Add it to the many discrimination efforts that are placed on registered citizens by law enforcement, businesses, and the general public.
Good luck….too many families of suffering from the stigma this registry brings onto the entire family. Not just the registrant.
I think this also violates the Washington state (Amazon’s home state) regulations about discrimination/refusal to hire based on a conviction that has no clear relationship with their job. https://www.aclu-wa.org/file/99150/download?token=m4Hs9loV
I wonder if we can sue homefacts and other websites that crawl the registry under the same theory
That’s exactly what they did at Safeway to me. The law says felonies over 7 years old can’t be checked and they just didn’t care. They looked up the information because they could.
sound like a direct violation of CA290… Employment, housing and credit may not be denied for presense on the registry
I work at Amazon and live in California. interesting..
These facts are far from ideal. The prohibition on anti-registrant employment discrimination is barely enforced. We need a case with really good facts to get a helpful decision on appeal.
@janice I would like to see if we can do the same for a trucking outfit from corona ca. The case to which you are suing Amazon is similarly situated to what happened to me 8 months ago by a well known trucking company in California.