Illinois Employment Screening  Background Check Services

All employment background check services including pre-employment drug screening and employment criminal record background checks  are available in Illinois.

New ILLnois law regarding use of background checks.

Updated 06/2021

Illinois has joined other states moving toward requiring employers to justify their adverse action against those applicants who have criminal records. The law has no direct impact on Consumer Reporting Agencies, but might cause CRAs to develop and make available Illinois specific pre and post adverse action notices for Illinois employers. These will be discussed below.   The new law does not specifically limit consideration of any criminal record but pushes employers to articulate why a criminal record disqualifies someone from specific employment. Basically, the test is whether the job creates the similar circumstances that lead to the crime reoccurring with the job. The law is vague as to what that exactly means, but one can imagine that a thief will not be qualified to handle cash or property of the employers or its customers. Someone who was convicted of aggravated assault and battery should not deal, alone, with customers, etc. To achieve this analysis, this new law requires the employer to state that crime “X” could happen in job “A” and thus this disqualifies the applicant. The law does not mention other laws that may disqualify a person if they have certain convictions by law. One assumes that still exists, and would be the reason for the disqualification.   The law has the typical considerations of how long ago the crime occurred, the seriousness, etc. We have posted the Illinois Department of Human Rights FAQ on this issue. Feel free to provide this to your Illinois end-users.   The pre-adverse action notice must, in addition to FCRA requirements, contain the following: Identify what conviction(s) are being considered to be disqualifying.  Notice to customer that he can dispute and/or provide mitigating information.  Minimum of 5 business days for consumer to respond to the preliminary decision not to hire.    In regard to the 5 day period, it seems prudent that this period begins when the consumer receives the notice. The use of email seems to be critical to this process. The USPS is becoming less reliable. An employer does not want to be caught making a final decision before the consumer actually received the pre-adverse action notice.   The final adverse action notice must include: Provide the reasoning why the conviction(s) disqualified the consumer. This is the job-relatedness issue. The law references conditions similar to those existing for the original crime. Whether the employer needs to get very specific or whether a general statement is sufficient is not known. Advise the consumer if the employer has any appeal process. Advise that the consumer has the right to file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Civil Rights – provide contact information such as www.illinois.gov/dhr or (312) 814-4320.

Use Of Social Media In Pre-Employment Screening:

Illinois bars employers from demanding employees or applicants reveal their usernames or passwords linked to social networking sites; also prohibits employers from forcing employees to display their social networking profiles for review (2012).

Our criminal records   Smart Search Plus®    has become the industry standard for a quality    FCRA   compliant criminal records background check.

It includes an unlimited check of the Federal criminal records repositories in the states where the applicant has lived for the past 7 years.

It also includes a check of any needed state and county criminal records checks as well as a social security number address history trace, a multi-state criminal records database search and a check of of the sex offender registry in all 50 states.

It is the criminal records background check now chosen by most of our clients.
For a   brief overview of all of our FCRA compliant employment screening services, please   Click Here

Employers may not make adverse employment decisions based upon arrest records, sealed/expunged criminal histories, or arrests for which an individual has pleaded guilty to a crime, received supervision, complied with the supervision requirements, and received a judgment dismissing the charges.

775 ILCS 5/2-103, 20 ILCS 2630

Conviction:

Employers may use conviction information to evaluate prospective employees. 775 ILCS 5/2-103, 20 ILCS

2630/3. However, when obtaining conviction information, employers must obtain a signed release from the subject, keep a copy of the release on file for two years, and provide the subject

National Employment Screening provides professional employment screening services to Illinois employers to help you protect your employees and clients from the costly effects of hiring undesirable employees.

Call anytime to get more information about our Illinois Employment screening and employment background check services at 800.459.3034.

Illinois employment screening law: Giving Employment References in Illinois.

Illinois addresses this issue with laws concerning giving employment references.

Illinois employment screening law states that an Employer is immune from civil liability for providing work related information regarding former employee if requested by former employee or potential employee and was made in good faith without being knowingly false or misleading, nor violating employee civil rights. ILL State. (§46/10)

Illinois employment screening law: At Will employment law doctrine in Illinois.

In Illinois, employees are presumed to be “at will.” At-will employees may be terminated for any reason, so long as it’s not illegal.

Generally, employees who work under an employment contract can only be terminated for reasons specified in the contract.

In Illinois, an employment relationship is at-will unless there is a defined duration for the employment contract or if the contract permits termination by the employer only under specified circumstances.

Illinois employment screening law:

Arrest Records: Employers may not inquire into or use the fact of an arrest as a basis for refusing to hire.

Employers cannot ask if an applicant has been arrested.

Employers cannot use criminal history information which has been expunged, sealed, or impounded as a basis for denying employment or promotion.

Criminal convictions: Employers may inquire into & use the fact of a conviction as a basis for refusing to hire. However, under the Criminal Identification Act, employers may not inquire into or use the fact of a criminal history record that has been expunged, sealed, or impounded.

Disclosure: employers must include on applications language stating that applicants aren’t obligated to disclose expunged or sealed records of arrests or convictions.

Illinois Methamphetamine Manufacturer Database

16 July 2007. In compliance with state law, Illinois makes available this database on persons convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine.
This information provided includes the offender’s name, date of birth, offense or offenses, the conviction date and county of each offense. You may search by last name, county or conviction date.

Reference: Illinois Complied Statute Annotated, Chapter 775, Section 5/2-103

Please note that Federal employment screening law mandates background checks for employees who are engaged in particular industries.

The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services maintains a list of individuals who are excluded from participation in any of its federally-funded healthcare programs.

Exclusions are due to convictions for program-related fraud and patient abuse, licensing board actions and default on health education assistance loans.

Therefore, employers in affected industries should check the OIG Exclusion list before hiring employees who might work in such programs.

The FACIS® program is also very important when screening medical personnel. Click Here for more information on FACIS®.

We provide employment screening and employment background check services for employers in all Illinois cities including Cook County (Chicago), Galesburg, Lincoln, Springfield, Kankakee, Champaign, Elgin and other Illinois cites.

We provide employment screening services for hospitals, nursing homes, franchised auto dealers, staffing companies, etc.

Updated 05/2020

Disclaimer
None of the information contained in this web site should be construed as legal advice.All forms, policies, information and procedures should be reviewed by your legal counsel before being used in any way.