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when considering employment. For example, if an applicant has been arrested, but never convicted, you should not factor the arrests into the decision of whether to offer that individual a job. Criminal background? The EEOC asks that employers consider 3 factors when consid- ering hiring an applicant with a criminal background on his record: • Nature or gravity of the offense. Was it violent? Were drugs involved? Was it a white-collar crime? • How long ago did the offense occur? Was the applicant convicted 6 months ago or 5 years ago? If it has been several years, the EEOC would take the position that the conviction should not be considered when mak- 2 M A Y 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 3 Over the past few years, legislation has been introduced to "ban the box" on employment appli- cations. This refers to questions on an application form requesting information on any criminal history. The question is most often asked in the following way: "Have you ever been convicted of a crime, pled no contest or had adjudication withheld?" The logic behind the "ban the box" move- ment is that many applicants are not hired if they check the box acknowledging that they have been convicted of a crime. The conviction could have been 20 years ago, but they still have to check the box, which makes it hard to secure employment. In recent months, many states have adopted a law to remove this question from job applica- tions, and individual cities can adopt the ordinance. San Francisco, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, New York City, Portland, Philadelphia and Seattle have all done so. What does this mean for you as an employer? If you run a facility in one of those cities or in a state that has enacted the law, you must update your application for employment. If you're in a city or state that does not have this ordinance, you can choose to keep the question about criminal history on your application. However, you cannot legally use the responses as a screening technique for possible employment. — Raleigh F. "Sandy" Seay Jr., PhD EMPLOYMENT LAW Ban the Criminal History Box?