While the information posted on the Internet on social networking sites is usually public for everyone to see, employers need to be aware of potential claims for using this information in the employment context. The law, as usual, cannot keep up with the fast-moving technology and change social media sites, so there are many uncertainties
Mayor Garcetti signed into law the “Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring” ordinance on December 7, 2016. The law takes effect January 22, 2017. The Mayor’s holiday gift to employers leaves only a couple of weeks to them to change applications and hiring processes to comply with the new ordinance. This Friday’s Five lists
Generally, California employers must comply with the following rules governing whether they may obtain criminal history information when conducting background checks for applicants or employees:
Based on last week’s post about the lawsuit filed against LinkedIn alleging that it violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
, I thought it would be good to point out a few issues the arise when employers conduct background checks. This article is not comprehensive, and this area of the law is very
Recently, the issue raised in Sweet v. LinkedIn is whether the Reference Searches functionality offered by LinkedIn is governed by the 
regulations set forth in the FCRA. The Reference Search feature allows users who pay a fee to search for references that have worked with any other LinkedIn member. The results list common employers and
I will be conducting a webinar on January 15, 2013 on legal issues of social media in the workplace. The presentation will cover everything a California employer needs to know about social media in the modern workplace of 2013:
The recent (and not too recent) flurry of attention that has been given to the issue regarding whether 
employers can ask applicants and employees for their Facebook passwords is a good review of what is appropriate conduct for employers, but it is also a good reminder to employees that what they do online is of
I would love to be able to tell my clients that the Internet and social media has created a very complex set of legal issues that requires them to hire me in order to help develop all new handbook policies, change the way they conduct background checks on applicants, and monitor their employees. However, unfortunately
California’s new labor code provision severely restricts an employer’s ability to conduct credit checks on employees. Labor Code 1024.5, which took effect on January 1, 2012, only allows employers to conduct credit checks for employees who meet one of the following categories:
A managerial position.
A position in the state Department of Justice.
That
Mat Honan at Gizmodo wrote recently about a new company that helps employers search applicant’s “internet background” to assist in the hiring process. As Mat rightly points out, much of the concern over this “new technology” is overblown, and as he puts it, "[e]mployers would have to be stupid not to Google job candidates."