EEOC Revokes 2012 Guidance on Arrest and Conviction Records in Hiring
EEOC voted to rescind, effective immediately, its 2012 guidance urging employers not to weigh applicants' arrest and conviction records; the same review also flags a final DOL PBM fee-disclosure rule.
Littler's Workplace Policy Institute reports that the EEOC voted this week to revoke its 2012 enforcement guidance, which was intended to discourage employers from considering prospective employees' arrest and conviction records, with the rescission stated to be effective immediately. That reverses a fifteen-year-old enforcement position and reopens a compliance question that has driven hiring litigation and settlements: whether criminal-record screening is applied in ways that disproportionately exclude protected groups. Employers using criminal-record screening, contingent staffing vendors and background-check providers would ordinarily revisit job criteria, notice-and-explanation practices, and disparate-impact testing documentation — although Littler's summary does not set out the rescinded text, the vote, or any litigation posture, so the precise scope of the change is unconfirmed in the available material.
The same review reports that the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration announced on October 29 a final rule requiring pharmacy benefit managers and affiliates to disclose fees and compensation to large employers' self-insured group health plans, and flags Representative Susie Lee's introduced PROTECT Small Restaurants Act, which would require delivery platforms to have partnership agreements with restaurants they list.
Watch for the EEOC's full rescission text and any challenge to it, and for employer-facing guidance on what screening practices remain lawful after rescission.