Bibas
PHILADELPHIA – Being honest about a criminal past shouldn’t punish someone looking for a job, a federal appeals court has ruled in a case involving Pennsylvania law.
The state’s Criminal History Record Information Act limits what cops and prosecutors can disclose to employers about applicants and prevents companies from using some of that information when deciding whether to hire, in most cases.
But Rodney Phath’s admission to a prior crime when looking for a truck-driver job led the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to discuss whether the law applied to his situation.
“Nothing in the Act forbids asking applicants about their convictions; it just limits how employers may use that information,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote Jan. 28.
Central Transport interviewed Phath for a driving position. He has a commercial license, experience and clearance to access secure ports, but he also has a criminal record.
Fifteen years before the interview, he was convicted of armed robbery, leading to a six-year stint in prison. Central Transport told Phath it would be running a background check, and he volunteered his past.
Central Transport said “immediately” that it would not be hiring him, so he sued it. The Third Circuit’s ruling allows his case to proceed after a Philadelphia federal judge had granted the company’s motion to dismiss.
The company argued parts of the state law protecting it applied because it had learned of the conviction from Phath, not criminal-justice agencies.
Past convictions may only be weighed in the hiring process if the crimes relate to the job. The law also says employers that reject applicants with criminal histories must do so with written notice.
It creates exceptions for employers if they independently learn of criminal actions through court documents, wanted posters and press releases.
“Central Transport learned of Phath’s conviction from Phath,” Bibas wrote. “And Phath learned of it by living through it, not from any of the excluded sources.
“Even if (the law) could shield an employer whose information traced back to one of these sources, it would not shield Central Transport… Central Transport received information about Phath’s robbery conviction, and that information is part of his criminal history record information file.
“Nothing in the statute requires the information to come from the file.”
