With approximately 617,594 residents, Boston is named as the largest city of Massachusetts. Its economy is primarily based on research, electronics, engineering, finance, and high technology. In 2008, the city is ranked among the top 10 cities in the world for a career in finance. Consequently, this beautiful profile of Boston creates an appealing invitation for job seekers to carve their niche in any of the city’s leading industries. Likewise, its enormous population can also make a healthy number of law offenders.
During 2005, the Boston Police Department reported 4,313 total drug arrests – with cocaine being the most heavily used drugs in the city. Yet, despite this appalling scenario, Boston continues to look for talented and interested who can apply to jobs which will contribute to improving the quality of life in Boston, increasing the safety and well-being of residents, and furthering the academic achievements of our children. This mission, however, is now guided with the appropriate principles of background checks to ensure that hired individuals are not only fit for the job description, but are also void of any discrimination.
Boston is one of the major cities in the United States that adopted new hiring policy to limit discrimination in city and county jobs against people with criminal records. The ordinance requires business companies to make a “good faith” determination of whether a criminal background check is required for a particular position – with the exemption of law enforcement and other occupations that require background checks by Federal law.
Boston employers must wait to conduct a criminal background check until the job applicant is found to be “otherwise qualified” for the position, which typically means the background check is not conducted until a conditional offer of employment is made by the vendor. This new hiring policy took effect in July 1, 2006. And in addition to that changes, the City of Boston also revised its job application by removing the questions about criminal history.
For Boston employers that do not have background checks policy in place, it’s important that you study all the conditions of Massachusetts employment policy, as well as familiarize yourself with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In Massachusetts, employers must carefully comply with laws concerning consumer reports, criminal background checks, and driver’s record information.
Sources:
http://www.nelp.org/page/-/SCLP/citypolicies.cfm.htm http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/statelocal/ma/maboston.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston
