Pre Employment Screening In Massachusetts

National Employment Screening provides professional pre employment screening services to Massachusetts employers to help you protect your employees and clients from the costly effects of making a "Bad Hire."

We provide employment screening and employment background check services for Boston, Lowell, Springfield, Cape Cod, Scituate, and other Massachusetts cities.

Call anytime to get more information about our Massachusetts Employment screening services at 800.459.3034.

Massachusetts state wide criminal records are not recommended as the sole source of criminal records as many counties in Massachusetts do not report at all or are extremely slow in reporting arrest records.

Massachusetts law concerning  criminal records for persons with "only" one misdemeanor conviction for the following crimes: drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, minor traffic violations, affray, or disturbance of the peace requires that employers may not, under any circumstances, inquire or maintain records related to an employee's or applicant's first conviction.

Massachusetts employers cannot use any misdemeanor conviction records where the date of conviction (or the date of the completion of incarceration, whichever is later) took place five or more years prior to the date of employment, unless the applicant has also been convicted of any other offense within the five years immediately preceding the date of application.

Exception: If salary will be equal to $20,000 or more, the 7-year restriction does not apply.

No doubt these laws are well intended but they also prevent employers from effectively screening undesirable employees from the beginning.

In Massachusetts a county criminal background check should be requested an all prior counties of residence in order to have the most complete and up to date background check information. A complete address history can usually be obtained from a social security number trace which will provide all addresses associated with a particular social security number for the past 10 years.

Massachusetts employment screening law: Giving Employment References

Apparently, Massachusetts employment screening law does not provide specific protection to employers as it relates to supplying references concerning past employment.
It would seem that previous employers may provide any non-confidential information about a previous employee, so long as it's true and isn't provided to maliciously harm the employee. An employer who provides false information that disparages the employee may be liable for defamation. Lacking specific protection by state law, In order to avoid potential liability, many employers often refuse to comment on a past employee's job performance and confirm only minimal information such as dates of hire and separation, plus wage or salary information.

This practice, however, leaves employers between the proverbial "Rock and a Hard Place" as they may find themselves the target of a lawsuit from a subsequent employer for failing to disclose a potentially dangerous employee.

Call anytime to get more information about our Massachusetts Employment screening services at 800.459.3034.

Massachusetts restricts vendor reporting of criminal conviction information to seven years:

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.

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