Nova Scotia Nurses union unhappy with criminal background check plan
The College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia will start requiring all prospective Nurses to conduct a $30 Canadian Criminal background check. The must pay for the background check themselves. An honor system is currently inplace and all nurses must report any criminal offeneses on their annual renewal. The college executive director thinks that requiring the prospective nurses to pay for their own background check is prohibitive and she feels that the honor system is working.
We agree that having prospective candidates pay for their own background check may force them to apply elsewhere. There is a shortage of nurses in the United States and Nova Scotia nurses may do well to travel south of the border.
We disagree that the honor system is working. The honor systems works for those who do not commit crimes. It is naive to believe that those nurses commit crimes, will honorably report all crimes on renewal. The honor system, while high minded and should reflect the decency and civility of Nova Scotia, is subjecting medical patients to the “honor” of a criminal minded nurse. By reductio ad absurdum, imagine a child molesting nurse. Are we to believe that such a nurse would admit such crimes or convictions to the nursing college knowing that this information would assuredly ruin her chance to keep her job. The college rightfully has instituted a background check program to protect the populace.
I’m your ice cream man background check me when I’m passing by
Seems like background checks are on everyone’s minds these days, especially when we consider the potential harm to our children. It doesn’t take much for people to think this way, just a few scandals involving a school bus driver, a teacher, or even an ice cream man. Make sure your business isn’t the one caught in the news hiring a sex offender who then attacks a child or student. The negative publicity will create a public relations nightmare for your firm and you will need a strong crisis management team to pull your business out of the muck.
The South County Journal recently discussed running background checks on Ice Cream Truck Drivers in your neighborhood.
Greg Sloan, manager of Frosty Treats, 4230 N. Broadway, said the business requires background checks for its drivers, even if the municipality where they work does not require them.
A Higher Source
Regardless of local regulations, try to maintain a higher standard for your background check program. Not only will you enjoy a higher quality workforce you will prevent negative press related to a negligent hiring situation. Because Davie Lee Roth might be a good Rock n Roll singer, but you sure don’t want him selling ice cream to your children.
background checks
ice cream trucks
public relations
School Districts Failing to background check bus drivers
Are you children riding the bus to school in Missouri? A Missouri State auditor said that school bus driving companies are not always meeting the requirement for background checks and drug testing for school bus drivers and aides. The bus companies are apparently responsible for coordinating the background checks.
If you are considering doing business with a public school district, be aware that background checks are coming under intense scrutiny as we seek to better protect our nation’s children. Most school districts are implementing background check requirements, and we recommend your own companies background check program exceeds the expectations of the school district. Check anyone and everyone that would have any contact with children. Conduct pre-employment drug screening and frequent, random drug screening of employees. Your extra efforts will be recognized by the public, and you will also prevent any negative press associated with a negligent hiring situation.
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school background checks
drug testing
drug screening
Hot for Teacher - background checks, that is
The Austin American-Statesman wants the results of background checks conducted by the Austin School Board, but the school board and the The Association of Texas Professional Educators doesn’t want to give it to them. The District Attorney apparently ruled that “part of the information was not exempt from the public information laws.” Now the association has filed a lawsuit to withold this information.
“While we had certainly hoped that the district and the attorney general’s office would have respected the privacy of individual citizens, we’re now forced to file suit to protect the fundamental rights of AISD employees,” said Doug Rogers, the group’s executive director.
While the courts decide the issue, it’s worth discussing what’s at stake here. The trouble with protecting public records about teachers in a public school is that the students of citizens attend these schools. It seems that the public has a right to the results of the background checks conducted on the teachers, at least the ”public records” portion, such as criminal background history, civil background history, liens, judgments, etc.
The importance of background checks in public school cannot be igored. In light of the litigation involved in the Roman Catholic church scandal over abuse inside the church, any organization must be aware of the potental fallout of negligent hiring and not running background checks on your employees. School need to screen all employees of the school system, not just teachers.
background checks
teacher background checks
education verification
Church Accountant steals $200,000 from her own place of worship
In a shocking case in Torrance Superior Court, a church accountant embezzled approximately $200,000 from her employer, Church of the Beach Cities. She plead no contest to one count of embezzlement and was sentenced to two years in prison. She had been attending the church for approximately six years.
In addition to her position as office manager, she helped in women’s ministries, led Bible studies, did some churchwide event coordinating, prayed regularly with staff t is a licensed minister,
Read the full article in the Beach Reporter to learn about some of the practices this employee used to hide her theft.
Anderson was paying all of the church’s bills, but whenever there was money left over, she would take it.
I knew we were looking at phony bank statements. She was having the statements retyped and she was stealing money through online banking. She set up online accounts with my (the pastor’s) Social Security number”
There has been a spike in newspaper stories recently about employee theft , and unfortunately houses of worship are an easy place for a financial predator to strike. It can be very hard to protect your business or non-profit organization from this type of criminal behavior if you are not careful. Loss prevention not only the battle against theft, or but also the litigation costs associated with negligent hiring. The article doesn’t mention whether the church had originally run a background check on this employee. It is paramount for any organizaton to properly screen their employees, especially anyone with check writing and fidicuary responsibilties. Run a credit history check for employment, and also check county civil records search for any and all bankruptcy, liens and judgments records. Finally, run a criminal records seach to make sure your candidates hasn’t been convicted of embezzlement.
Hopefully the church will be able to get back some of the stolen funds. Stay out the news by background screening all of your organization’s employees.
background checks
employment screening
church screening
volunteer background checks
Why you should run motor vehicle records on your employees
Corra Daily Planet has a great article on the reasons for running a motor vehicle driving record (MVR Search) on your prospective employees and your current employees.
The fact is the Motor Vehicle Driving Records can tell you much more than just how your candidate is driving. This search can define behavior patterns and even indicate substance problems. You do not want substance abuse problems in your work place, so you either run drug tests or look for the behavioral signs through the DMV search and other background check indicators.
Sometimes your business contracts will require you to run an annual check on your driving motor vehicle records. Using a web-based background check screening company like www.corragroup.com will help you re-order these searches quickly and easily. Searches provided include DOT and CDLIS motor vehicle records.
Background Checks & College Football : scoring a hit
South Carolina Gamecocks have begun running detailed background checks on all their pending coaches, administrators, and employees in response to recent probation by the NCAA. As we see in the sporting world, when you score a hit on your background checks, you protect your company and organization from a negligent hiring lawsuit and you play zone defense by preventing any negative press about your firm.
For universities we recommend conducting complete criminal record history searches for all coaches and sporting officials. While an instant criminal database search will speed up the proceed, we also recommend conducting a social security trace to determine address history and then cunning county criminal records searches on all the counties where your candidates have resided.
Check out the full article here and keep your team in the sports page, not the rumor column.
background checks
ncaa football
university background checks
FBI Background Check System overloaded
The FBI is facing a technology crisis with new requests for background checks:
The Justice Department’s inspector general concluded that the FBI’s National Name Check Program is working with outdated technology, and that poorly trained personnel and overworked supervisors are falling far behind.
The name-check program and its FBI fingerprint database are the largest in the world, containing prints and background histories on more than 50 million people.
The FEDS haven’t invested in better technology to meet the larger demand for FBI criminal background checks since 9/11. The process continues to take longer, slowing down legal immigration and crippling our nation’s ability to respond quickly to any problems.
Most modern private background check companies, like Corra Background Checks, provide web-based access to many different types of background checks for employment screening purposes. Their software is state of the art and can combine criminal results and drug testing results into the same report. Information is transmitted electronically between the drug lab, the criminal database, the courthouse researcher and integrated to give their clients a fast and easy to use background checking system.
background checks
employment screening
FBI background check
Background Check Results: What to do
David Evans wrote an interesting article about background checks in higher education. As our universities begin to screen more candidates including professorships, its only natural for a scholastic and thoughtful discuss to arise about the merits of the background check procedure. He describes a horror story where a candidate was not selected due to negative information reported on the background check. He states that the negative information was wrong and the candiate went through a whole rigamarole trying to get the information cleaned up, but ultimately was denied because he had “protested the negative finding”
Firstly, hiring instutions must comply with the FCRA Fair credit report act, which protects candidates from this situation. Should a candidate not be hired due to negative information on the background check, he must receive a letter stating this, and should be entitled to a copy of the background check. The article doesn’t mention what sort of negative information was listed in the report, so let’s discuss criminal records. All good background check court researchers follow a list of matching procedures to assure the degree of accurary with criminal court matches. Usually the minimum match is a full first and last name and date of birth match, but it can also include social security number, address and middle name matches. Anything less, such as a name only match, should be indicated on the report. Occassionally there are very common names, like John Smith, that happen to have the same date of birth as your candidate, so further verification via ssn, address history, and middle name can be very important. All of this should be discussed with your hiring instution when any negative information is returned.
No background checks for rogue doctor
Another background check controversy is erupting in Australia where a rogue doctor was practicing obstetrics illegally. The health minister reported :
no background checks were done on Graeme Reeves before he was employed as an obstetrician at two South Coast hospitals in 2002 despite being banned from the specialty in 1997.
Police are investigating hundreds of serious allegations against Mr Reeves of sexual assault and botched procedures, including genital mutilation
The importance of Background Checks
Since this case is being discussed in Australian parliament and reported widely in the news, it’s important for businesses across the world the realize the potential public relations nightmare involved with negligent hiring. It’s important for any business, not matter the size, to develop and implement and background screening program for their firm. Background checks costs vary widely, and not all firms needs the same type of background checks.
Hospitals, as per the above horrible case, would do well to not only conduct a comprehensive criminal record search in the candidate’s address history, but also check references and verify employment, at least three previous employers. For professional medical positions, it’s imperative to verify that person’s educational background and check their professional licenses for current registartion and any disciplinary action. We also recommend running OIG/GSA sanctions list for all healthcare workers.
A comprehensive background check programs should provide you with a safeguard against embarrasing public relations as well as lawsuits arising out of damages caused by your employees.
background checks
negligent hiring
