Virginia is the latest state to stop factoring criminal history into hiring decisions, unless it is “demonstrably job-related and consistent with business necessity,” according to an executive order issued Friday by Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
The commonwealth’s legislature voted down the move last year, but McAuliffe circumvented the legislature with his order.
More than a dozen states have stopped asking applicants for government jobs about their criminal histories.
The goal is to use positions of public trust and money as avenues of giving second chances to people and ensuring that early mistakes in life don’t doom them.
Six states have enacted legislation banning private-sector employees from asking whether people they are considering hiring are convicts. The legislation is sometimes referred to as “ban the box.”
In Virginia, as in many of the other states, criminal checks are still required for “sensitive” jobs like police officer or childcare provider. But the checks could be conducted only as the last step before hiring, the Washington Times reported.
When public employees steal, state, federal and local government agencies frequently place them on paid leave while issuing vague statements about holding employees to high standards of conduct. But they also often turn a blind eye to warning signs of bad employees.
An audit this year by the Internal Revenue Service found that the agency re-hired hundreds of former employees who had serious discipline records in their first stint at the agency. Many resigned during an investigation or were fired.
After being re-hired, many of them went on to get in trouble again.
The IRS said it didn’t believe past performance was a predictor of future performance.
It also blamed the re-hirings on rules kept the agency from checking disciplinary records until too late in the process.
