Forums
evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
General Forum
evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
Discuss workforce management, performance management, retention, communication, motivation, contributing to business results and other topics.
Our head of security received a phone call last week from a person asking us why we were employing a convicted felon? After the phone call I pulled the individuals file and found that this person did
0
Cat:Topic ForumsForum:ForumId53
Cat:Topic ForumsForum:ForumId53Discussion:DiscussionId15907
Forums » Topic Forums » General Forum » evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
Forums
»
Topic Forums
»
General Forum
»
evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
|
evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
posted at 8/25/1999 7:14 AM EDT
|
Posts: 1
First: 8/25/1999 Last: 8/25/1999 |
Our head of security received a phone call last week from a person asking us why we were employing a convicted felon? After the phone call I pulled the individuals file and found that this person did admit to serving a year & 1/2 in a county correctional center on their app. The application was dated March 1996 and the employee stated that they had been convicted ten years prior to 1996. When I did a background check their records told me different. It had been eight years prior to 1996. On the application the employee did not say what they had been convicted of and I found out from their records that they had two counts against them. One for consealed weapon and the other for drug trafficing. I started working for this company in Jan. and had heard rumors that this person had one incident last year where somone accused them of selling drugs to employees. At the time they had no names and no other specifics. I conducting an investigation after we received this phone call but was unable to find any substantial evidence supporting the accusation that he was distribution drugs. Is there any way to terminate him/her because of the falsification of dates on their application? Or is it too late? They have been employed by us for four years and they have never been written up. Job performance is OK and there are no concerns from the supervisor. I can't believe the person hired a convicted felon in the first place. Now that the person is gone that hired them I am left to clean up their mistake. We have students we work around and the potential for them to be selling drugs to the students is even more of a liability risk. The thought of parents finding out that their children are around a convicted drug dealer makes me very uncomfortable. Especially, for the sake of the company and the kids. What do you think? Thanks for your time.
|
|
|
evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
posted at 8/25/1999 5:48 PM EDT
|
|
Posts: 833
First: 6/11/1999 Last: 8/23/2001 |
Most applications ask if there was a felony conviction within the past 7 years, the employee could have honestly answered "no"; whether it was 8 or 10 years prior, the employee was honest enough to admit the conviction, and it's not the employee's fault your predecessor didn't check.
Someone obviously knows of this employee's past; you investigated and came up with nothing. I don't condone this employee's past behavior, but you'd be dismissing this employee because your predecessor's hiring practices were lacking. Without an employment contract, you could dismiss the employee as an employee-at-will, but that seems so thin. You have a 4-year old error (which could have been inadvertent) and an unfounded year-old accusation. If this employee is in a protected class, seeing as how performance is OK, you'd be hard pressed to prove that the application error wasn't a pretext for a discriminatory discharge. The employee may warrant extra attention based on last year's accusation, but to find an excuse to dismiss the employee doesn't seem quite fair. You have to make a choice between this employee's potential to take legal action against you (which is very real) and the slim chance that someone will charge you with negligent hire, or negligent retention, and that can only come if the employee misbehaves -- which he has not. |
|
|
evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
posted at 8/25/1999 10:41 PM EDT
|
|
Posts: 90
First: 6/23/1999 Last: 9/26/2001 |
I have to echo Jim's response. Also, you may want to try to find out why the information was brought forward now. Did this employee upset another at work? If so, it could be a form of retaliation and that is yet another whole area of liability potential surfacing. |
Forums » Topic Forums » General Forum » evidence of misrepresentation of information on an application, found 4 years after hire date
