President Obama wants the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to restrict employers' use of criminal background checks in hiring decisions. In the wake of the massacre of the innocents at the Washington Naval Yards does he feel differently now? As Scott Thurm wrote in the Wall Street Journal last month: Civil-rights activists and the EEOC say the checks can be discriminatory because blacks are convicted of crimes at higher rates than whites. Last year, the EEOC issued guidelines that don't prohibit the use of criminal checks, but urge employers to consider the crime, its relation to an applicant's potential job, and how much time has passed since the conviction. The guidelines also recommend that employers review each case individually, and allow applicants to show why they should be hired despite a conviction. In practice, the EEOC  has been on a rampage to pressure companies to abandon such background checks. They are used by 87 % of employers to screen workers. ...(Read Full Post)