The FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) is Federal legislation that governs the procurement and use of consumer reports.
It is designed primarily to protect the privacy of consumer report information and to guarantee that the information
supplied by consumer reporting agencies such as Unisource Screening is as accurate as possible. We take the law seriously
and we take steps to make sure that our clients are in compliance with the FCRA every step of the way in the pre-employment screening process.
Therefore, we will only accept clients that are legitimate businesses engaging our services strictly for pre-employment screening purposes.
We will verify that you meet our criteria for becoming a client before we will open an account on your behalf. We also require that you
certify in writing that you will maintain compliance with the FCRA.
Adhering to FCRA Guidelines:
- Notify the applicant in writing that you intend on obtaining a consumer report on them.
- Obtain written authorization from the applicant before conducting a background check. (At Unisource,
we require a copy of the authorization to be on file before we will perform certain searches on an applicant).
If you plan on taking adverse action, i.e. denying an applicant employment based on information that you have learned
from a consumer report, you must do the following:
- Before you take adverse action, you must give the applicant a "pre-adverse action disclosure" that includes a copy
of the individual’s consumer report and a copy of “A Summary of Your Rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act”
– a document prescribed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
- After the adverse action is taken, you must give the applicant an "adverse action notice" either orally, in writing,
or electronically that the action has been taken.
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It must include the name, address and phone number of the Consumer Reporting Agency
(CRA) that supplied the report.
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A statement that the CRA that supplied the report did not make the decision to take
the adverse action and cannot give specific reasons for it. A notice that the individual’s
right to dispute the accuracy of completeness of any information the agency furnished,
and his or her right to an additional free consumer report from the agency upon
request within 60 days.
Non-compliance to FCRA guidelines:
There are legal consequences for employers who fail to get an applicant’s permission before requesting a consumer report or
who fail to provide pre-adverse action disclosures and adverse action notices to unsuccessful job applicants. The FCRA allows
individuals to sue employers for damages in federal court. A person who successfully sues is entitled to recover court costs
and reasonable legal fees. The law also allows individuals to seek punitive damages for deliberate violations. In addition,
the Federal Trade Commission, other federal agencies, and the states may sue employers for noncompliance and obtain civil penalties.