September 10, 2024
Prince George’s County recently introduced new changes to CB-078-2014, one of the first introductions to the popular “ban the box” law. These changes appear in CR-019-2024, also known as the Employment Fairness Act for Returning Citizens. It will take effect on September 16, 2024, and replace the original CB-078-2014.
These new regulations will significantly change employers’ hiring changes, mainly due to the expanded scope to those affected by the ban the box law.
CB-078-2014 prevented employers from inquiring about a job seeker’s criminal background through applications and other mediums before an interview. After the first interview, employers may look into the applicant’s history by performing an “individualized assessment.”
This individualized assessment would consider “only specific offenses that may demonstrate unfitness to perform the duties of the position sought by the applicant, the time elapsed since the specific offenses, and any evidence of inaccuracy in the record.” Afterward, an employer may decide whether to hire the applicant with the criminal background in mind. Should they choose to rescind an offer of employment, they must accomplish the following:
- Provide the applicant with a copy of any criminal record report;
- Notify the applicant of the intention to rescind the offer of employment and the reasons for revoking the offer of employment; and
- Delay rescinding the offer of employment for seven (7) days so the applicant can notify the employer of inaccuracies that led to the rescinded offer of employment.
Employers that decide to rescind an offer of employment must notify the candidate in writing after following the above steps. Though groundbreaking at the time, the county recently revised and expanded these provisions through CB-019-2024. These revisions introduced several more requirements and an expanded scope describing whom it applies.
For example, the law previously applied to employers of only 25 or more full-time workers. Now, CB-019-2024 has reduced this threshold to a minimum of ten full-time workers. This reduction to the employee threshold means significantly more businesses will become subjects to these regulations. Furthermore, the law will also restrict employers from considering certain crimes, including the following:
- Nonviolent felonies with a sentence completed a minimum of five years or 60 months before the application;
- Misdemeanors with a sentence completed 30 months before the application;
- Arrest records that did not lead to a conviction, excluding those resulting in probation before judgment (employers may treat these exceptions as misdemeanors for employment purposes)
- Marijuana and cannabis-related arrests or convictions with the assumption of a completed sentence, excluding situations involving an intent to distribute (employers may consider records with convictions of intent to distribute).
A former council member described the distinction between CB-019-2024 and existing “ban the box” laws as the following:
“While the state and county’s ‘ban the box’ laws only delay the consideration of a conviction record until after an interview, they still allow employers to deny an offer based on that record before the final employment decision. This new legislation goes further by prohibiting the consideration of certain convictions entirely, provided enough time has passed since the sentence was served.”