The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted Oct. 21 to withdraw its 2012 guidance on how employers should consider arrest and conviction records in hiring and other employment decisions.
The change takes effect immediately and agency officials said the rescission does not restore older policy statements that the 2012 guidance replaced, and does not require employers to abandon lawful practices they adopted in response to it.
The 2012 guidance addressed how criminal-history screening could violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Arrest and conviction records are not themselves protected characteristics under federal law. But the EEOC warned that blanket exclusions could disproportionately screen out people of color and trigger scrutiny under race or national origin discrimination theories.
The guidance encouraged employers to conduct individualized assessments, weighing the nature and seriousness of the offense, the time elapsed since it occurred, and the nature of the job.
EEOC chair Andrea Lucas said the vote reaffirms the agency’s commitment to enforce Title VII consistent with the Constitution and the limits Congress set on its authority.
She also stressed that rescinding the guidance “does not give employers license to engage in unlawful discrimination,” and that the EEOC will continue to enforce Title VII’s prohibitions on race and national origin discrimination, including employment requirements that serve as proxies for...
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