Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Chamber Opposes Credit Check Bill
The Maryland Chamber testified yesterday in opposition to legislation (HB 87) that would prohibit an employer from using an individual’s credit report or credit history as a basis to deny employment to an applicant for hire, discharge an employee, or determine compensation or terms of employment.
This is the second year this bill has been proposed, and momentum is building to pass the bill this year.
“The legislation acknowledges the need to have access to credit history information for a select few employers and industries, and provides a very narrow exemption for those employers,” said Maryland Chamber Vice President of Government Affairs Allyson Black. “However, it fails to take into proper account the other very legitimate and practical reasons why inquiry into credit history is a proper tool when assessing candidates for a particular type of position.”
This legislation provides a very narrow exemption for employers and needs amendments that would:
- Define and expand criteria for exemptions such as any bank holding company, debt collector, credit union and/or loan association,
- Add definitions for the applicant, credit history, credit report, employee and employer; and
- Expand provisions for use to also include if the applicant has access to credit or debit information, financial account information and/or trade secrets.
Chamber members, Valerie Androutsopoulos, Vice President of Vangel Paper Inc., and Colleen Denston, Director of Government Affairs for Maryland SHRM State Council, offered their views at the hearing yesterday on how the passing of this bill would affect their businesses.
“The ability to perform credit checks on potential employees is vital to safeguarding the information our clients have entrusted us to destroy,” said Androutsopoulos, whose company provides secure data destruction and recycling.
Check out what they had to say here:
For more information, contact Allyson Black at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
