The City of Austin, Texas has joined the long list of municipalities nationally that have adopted ordinances restricting employers ability to make inquiries into an applicant’s criminal background and to act on that information. Under Austin’s new Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance, an employer with fifteen or more employees in the City of Austin may not:
The EEOC Wants You to Consider Hiring this Guy.
The EEOC is reviewing whether the use of arrest and criminal conviction information acts as a hiring barrier and whether employers should be precluded from asking about criminal convictions. The EEOC publicized the meeting in a press release titled Striking a Balance Between Workplace Fairness and Workplace Safety. Particularly troubling about this hearing is the fact that