Employment: applicants: criminal conviction history consent form.

Existing law governs contracts and applications for employment and makes a violation of these provisions punishable as a misdemeanor. Existing law, the Fair Employment and Housing Act, prohibits an employer, as defined, to include on any application for employment any question that seeks the disclosure of an applicant's conviction history, to inquire into or consider the conviction history of an applicant until that applicant has received a conditional offer, and, when conducting a conviction history background check, to consider, distribute, or disseminate information related to specified prior arrests, diversions, and convictions. This bill would, under those laws relating to contract and applications for employment, require the Department of Justice to adopt a standard form for use by an employer, whether public or private, seeking the consent of an applicant for employment to conduct a conviction history background check on that applicant by the department, as specified. The bill would also require an employer to use that document when seeking the consent of an applicant for employment to conduct a conviction history background check by the department. The bill would specify that a violation of its provisions would not be subject to the misdemeanor provision.