One of the most recent case against an employer alleged to have violated the Civil Rights Act violation for using criminal histories to screen for employment is here in the District of Columbia against WMATA, the authority that runs the Metro bus and Metro subway systems. Other local transit companies are also defendants.
There are eight named plaintiffs in the putative class action suit being brought by Arnold & Porter, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. The Post reports that Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 “has raised questions about Metro’s hiring practices with the U.S. Department Labor and EEOC.”
You can read coverage of the litigation in a by the DC public radio station, WAMU, and in a Washington Post story. The case is Erick Little, et al. v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, et al., U.S. Dist. Ct. (D.C. No. 1:14-cv-01289-RMC).
At a February 2014 hearing before the D.C. Council, Councilwoman (and Democratic mayoral nominee) Muriel Bowser criticized WMATA’s use of criminal background checks and authored a resolution calling for more flexibility in WMATA’s polices. You can read more about this council hearing at a Washington Post blog, Bowser attacks metro policy on criminal background checks
Eric J. Ellman is Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) in Washington, DC. He also served for eight months as Interim President and CEO of the Association. More