EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND CHECKS
Texas Employment Background Checks And Screening Services
All employment screening services including pre-employment drug screening and pre-employment criminal record background checks are available in Texas.
National Employment Screening provides professional pre employment screening services to Texas employers to help you protect your employees and clients from the costly effects of making a “Bad Hire.”
Our criminal records Smart Search Plus® has become the industry standard for a quality 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 employment screening services, please Click Here
House Bill 1188, which takes effect Sept. 1, 2013, will limit the liability of employers who hire applicants with a criminal record.
The new law provides that a “cause of action may not be brought against an employer, general contractor, premises owner, or other third party solely for negligently hiring or failing to adequately supervise an employee, based on evidence that the employee has been convicted of an offense.”
The intent, of course, of HB 1188 will be to benefit employers and anyone with a criminal record who is seeking employment.
According to the National Institute of Corrections, about 5 million Texas adults have criminal records and hundreds of thousands of Texans who are no longer on probation or parole have felony convictions on their records.
As inmates leave prison and try to gain self-sufficiency, they are often met with resistance by employers who are concerned that hiring ex-offenders may expose them to liability.
How long after release from the corrections system might it be safe to hire someone with a criminal record?
For more information on this subject please: Click Here
Likely this statute provides some protection from negligent hiring or negligent supervision claims, employers must understand the laws and continue to screen applicants and employees to the maximum extent permissible under those laws.
Employers should also review their current employment screening policies and be able to provide the EEOC with specific reasons to support with good reasons why the information relied upon from a background check in connection with an employment decision is “job related and consistent with business necessity.”
Arrest:
The release or use of expunged felony or misdemeanor arrest records for any purpose is prohibited and the person whose records are expunged may deny the arrest and the existence of the expunction order.
Texas Code of Criminal
Procedure, Art.
55.03.
Conviction:
No Texas Statues have been located that restrict an employers ability to obtain and/or use conviction records.
However, a person whose juvenile records have been sealed is not required in any application for employment to state he or she has ever been the subject of a juvenile court proceeding.
We serve El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Wylie, McAllen, Austin, Wichita Falls, Burkburnett and all other Texas cities.
We provide employment screening services for hospitals, nursing homes, schools and colleges, franchised auto dealers, staffing companies, trucking and transportation companies, aero-space, banks, high tech companies, insurance companies and all other employers in all Texas cities.
For more information about the pre employment screening services we offer Texas Employers 800.459.3034. We explain – You decide.
Giving employment references in Texas and staying within Texas employment screening law.
Texas lawmakers have recognized the need for employers to provide and exchange accurate employment references on past employees without having to fear litigation.
In Texas an employer may, but is not required to, disclose to a prospective employer on the request of the employee, job performance information including the manner in which an employee performed a position of employment and an analysis of the employee’s attendance, attitudes, effort, knowledge, behaviors and skills.
An employer is immune from civil liability for such disclosures unless the employer knew the information to be false or the employer disclosed the information in a reckless disregard for the truth. (TX§103.001-005)
Texas law restricts vendor reporting of criminal record conviction information to seven years:
Texas employment screening law Reporting restrictions (Enacted October 1, 1997 – Not applicable)
Business & Commerce Code, Chapter 20, §20.05 No CRA may report “records of arrest, indictment, or conviction of crime, which from date of disposition, release, or parole, antedate the report by more than seven years.
Exception: If salary will be equal to $75,000 or more, the 7-year restriction does not apply.
Texas Employment Screening: At Will employment law Statutes In Texas
Under Texas law, employees are presumed to be “at will.” At-will employees may be terminated for any reason, so long as it’s not illegal.
In most states, employees that work under an employment contract can only be terminated for reasons specified in the contract.
However, in Texas, the mere fact that an employment contract is in writing is not sufficient to overcome the presumption that the employment is at-will.
To overcome this presumption, an employment contract must directly limit, in a meaningful and special way, the employer’s right to terminate the employee without cause.
In other words, the employer has to unequivocally indicate that it will not terminate the employee except under specific circumstances.
Please note that Federal 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®.