Employment discrimination: criminal history information.

Existing law, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, prohibits various forms of employment discrimination and empowers the Civil Rights Department to investigate and prosecute complaints alleging unlawful practices. Existing law makes it unlawful for an employer with five or more employees to, among other things, include on any application for employment, before the employer makes a conditional offer of employment to the applicant, any question that seeks the disclosure of an applicant's conviction history, except as provided. This bill would make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to take an adverse action against an applicant based solely or in part on criminal history information, unless the employer can demonstrate that the applicant's criminal history has a direct and adverse relationship with one or more specific duties of the job and the employer's business necessity requires the adverse action. The bill would also make it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to require, as a condition of employment, that an applicant waive the applicant's right to privacy in criminal history information or otherwise provide an authorization for the employer to obtain the applicant's criminal history information under specified law, unless the employer can demonstrate a business necessity. The bill would require an employer to provide to an applicant a written notice when requesting an applicant's authorization to obtain the applicant's criminal history information, as specified. The bill would define various terms for these purposes.