The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing ("DFEH") recently announced a new effort to identify and correct violations of the Fair Chance Act. The Fair Chance Act, which was enacted in January 2018 and is commonly known as California's "ban-the-box" law, amended the Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA") to prohibit employers with five or more employees from directly or indirectly inquiring into, seeking the disclosure of, or considering an applicant's conviction history (including questions on a job application) until after the applicant receives a conditional offer of employment. We previously summarized employers' obligations under the Fair Chance Act here.
Among its restrictions, the Fair Chance Act imposes limitations on the types of statements employers can make in job advertisements. The law prohibits employers from publicizing that they will not consider applicants with a criminal history. This includes, for example, advertisements stating, "No Felons" or "Must Have Clean Record." These and similar statements violate the Fair Chance Act's requirement that employers consider an applicant's criminal history on an individual basis, as well as any mitigating information provided by the applicant.
While the Fair Chance Act has been in place since January 2018, the DFEH (the agency charged with enforcing the Fair Chance Act) continues to identify non-compliant job advertisements and materials that employers have posted online. In fact, in a recent one-day...
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