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Background Checks

Napa Valley to Run Background Checks on Care Givers

Hiring care givers without conducting background checks has long been a subject of controversy.   Part of the controversial is over how many staffing agencies either fail to conduct background checks on their prospective employees or they run such shoddy background checks that many care givers and healthcare workers with criminal convictions slip through the cracks.  These are care givers that have serious substance abuse issues, have been sexual offenders, or have committed everything from petty theft to violent crime.  Some have mistreated their younger charges, and some have mistreated the elderly.

I have written on this subject before and have cited the joint Pro Publica Los Angeles Times Report that detailed the shoddy practices involved with hiring healthcare workers and care givers.   One such article I wrote was entitled,  Residential Care Workers Slip Through Background Checks.   Part of that article was based on the Pro Publica/LA Times Report that won the Pulitzer Prize this year.   Among other things, the article described how healthcare workers and care givers with criminal records and disciplinary actions against them avoid detection  by  flitting about from state to state.   When staffing agencies or state and public service agencies fail to conduct the appropriate background checks then these health care employees are free to repeat the same misdeed.

According to the Mercury News.com,  Napa County, California had ordered that all care givers must undergo background checks.   The new law applies to privately hired care givers as well as those in service with the public agencies.   There are a few exemptions, including those care givers already registered with Napa’s in-home care services.

The new ordinance goes a long way in protecting elderly citizens who live within Napa County from predatory care givers who can rob and otherwise abuse them.   A smart move and a true demonstration that Napa County is determined to protect its older and frailer citizens.

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Background Checks

Marijuana Laws and the Work Place–The Ongoing Saga

The Colorado Marijuana Law, allowing citizens pot for medical use, never did address certain issues.  The main issue that comes back to bite employers is how they should deal with employees who are under the influence of marijuana in the work place.  While the law prohibits actual pot smoking in the work place, for medical purposes or otherwise, it never did address the issue of people coming to work stoned.  I wrote about this earlier in an article entitled, Background Checks and Employees Using Medical Marijuana.

So what to do? Background checks reveal of course that the employee or job applicant has a legitimate permit for medical marijuana use.  Should this be the same as if he, say, had a prescription for other drugs?  Obviously, perspective changes when someone is working with Valium or Vicodin in his system, as long as that employee has a legitimate prescription.   Xanax and Prozac are also received in the workplace with less rancor than medical marijuana.  Yest, the aforementioned drugs can also alter the consciousness.  In fact, they are designed to alter the consciousness.

Oregon and Montana have shed some light on the subject by declaring through the courts that employees do not enjoy job protection under the current medical marijuana laws.  Rulings in  Washington State also indicate that any employee filing suit for loss of job because of medical marijuana would be coming up against a dead end.

According to the Grand Junction Free Press, more people have obtained medical marijuana cards.  Stands to reason.  Here in California it seems like almost mandated that everyone have a medical marijuana card.

I guess for the time being anyway, medical marijuana and employee job protection falls into a very gray area.   Hazy, in fact.  So what it comes down to is the discretion and particular concerns of each individual employer.  Some will not tolerate employees showing up to the job stone.  Some will keep and eye on them.   To make sure there are no performance issues or dangers in the workplace that the employee would cause to himself or fellow workers.  And some employers, depending on the job and the business, might not care at all.  In fact, in a good many cases, workers have been coming to work stoned for years.  Without or without a permit.

Which is why there is the need to conduct background checks, including drug tests, if you are concerned with drug use.  Perhaps it is best that it is up to the employer.  Employers know what they need from an employee and what they can live with and what they can live without.

Meanwhile, there is no smoking dope on the job.  Not even in the bathroom.  Not in your car.  Yeah, sure.

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Background Checks

More Adventures on the Missed Amy Bishop Background Checks

Unless you have been living on another planet for the past year, you are probably aware that Amy Bishop was the University of Alabama, Huntsville,  college professor accused of shooting killing three of our colleagues and wounding three others.   Bishop was allegedly concerned she would be receiving bad performances reviews that would adversely affect her consideration for tenure.

What is particularly disconcerting is that background checks on Amy Bishop did not reveal that she had shot and killed her brother some 24 years ago.   It was considered an accident, as Bishop claimed she was cleaning the 12 gauge shotgun and it just went bang, putting buckshot through her brother’s chest.   Anyway, the killing, accident or not, failed to turn up in Bishop’s background check.  No problem there.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Accidents will happen.  Although sometimes such mistakes are not accidents at all, and in this case it was allegedly a prelude to a future shooting spree where people were killed by someone who had always craved attention.

I wrote  about Bishop and the failed background check in earlier articles.  One such article was entitled, The Amy Bishop Background Checks.    What particularly struck me, and I did write about it in the past, was that fellow academicians and psychologists lamented the rigors of tenured appointments, claiming the stress would cause psychological disorders and various disruptions.  Or something to that effect.    Poor college professors, tenured with a job for life, under so much stress.  As for the rest of the working world, where layoffs and terminations are a fearful if not periodic occurrence, are we to assume they have somehow miraculously avoided such stress?   Don’t think so.   I thought it was audacious at best and a matter of stone raving gall for anyone to attribute the shooting of innocent people to stress related to the tenured professor  process.  But what do I know?  I have only had to work for a living.

It appears that Bishop, who according to observations from people who knew her, did crave attention.  Well, now she is going to get more than she bargained for.  Not only is she charged for shooting the six people at University of Alabama, but according to the New York Times, Bishop will be charged with the murder of her brother, twenty four years earlier.   It would appear that justice for her brother is about to be served.

There are some critics who believe background checks actualize a certain bias and prevent people from finding employment.  That may be true.  But background checks make employers aware of their job candidate’s previous criminal history.   Forewarned, as they say, is forearmed.   There is always a first time for everything.  But as is the case with Amy Bishop, the unwitting University of Alabama invited her into to its faculty.   And three people died.   In this case, a background check would have and should have raised some eyebrows.  It’s a tragedy.  Whether or not it could have been ultimately avoided is a point of conjecture.    But there was a chance.

Now people are dead and the alleged killer is probably heading to prison.  That will be her tenure.  Life behind bars.

Categories
Background Checks

California DMV Employees Arrested on License Fraud

Most employers consider conducting motor vehicle driving records as background checks for their preemployment screening program.  Trucking and transpiration companies must maintain Department of Transportation or DOT compliance standards by ordering MVRs on their drivers at least once every twelve months.   So the DMV for employers is a busy place.

So it comes as a bit of a jolt when it is reported on the California Department of Motor Vehicle Site that four employees of the California Department of Motor Vehicles were arrested eon multiple counts of fraudulently processing driver licenses and effecting a title-washing scheme that involved several vehicles, the department announced today.

According to the California DMV Website…

“Today’s operation incorporated four separate internal affairs cases involving employee misconduct, two of which involves the criminal investigation of stolen/embezzled high-end vehicles, and the use of fraudulent DMV forms submitted to the DMV in order to further perpetuate the fraudulent activity. The other two cases pertain to the fraudulent issuance of California Driver Licenses, identity theft and illegal use of legal presence documents.

The employees allegedly worked to secure and perpetuate the distribution of fraudulently issued DMV vehicle records, such as a Certificate of Titles to further their criminal subleasing enterprise.

During the investigation, it was determined that the employees, allegedly conspired with a middleman to illegally issue driver licenses. The five co-conspirators would charge $350 to $6,000 to process the applications fraudulently.

DMV Internal Affairs, the CHP and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security Division will continue to follow-up on all leads pertaining to this investigation.

In a separate case, Gonzalo Garcia, 40, a License Registration Examiner at DMV’s Hollywood/Cole office, was arrested on four felony counts each for alleged illegal access of DMV computers and falsification of public records. He is being held on $100,000 bail.

Charges:
The four employees are being charged with 182.1 PC (Conspiracy); 487 PC (Grand Theft); 502 (c) (1) PC (Illegal Computer Access); 68 PC (Bribery); 114 PC (Use of false documents to conceal resident status), and were booked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Century and Temple Stations. Each is being held on $50,000 bail. If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of $5,000 per count and up to four years in prison.”

I suppose it is doubtful while the crew was allegedly rigging license plates and driving records, the overall effect was minimal on preemployment background checks.   However, there may be some identify theft issues as the four charged with the crimes were reported to have falsified  information for driving records as well as license plates for stolen cars.   Nice.  We do feel relieved that California DMV Internal Affairs Unit in conjunction with the Highway Patrol conducted a successful sting and surveillance operation that may well have put an end to this business.  The four were reported to have charged anywhere from $350 to $6,000 to process the falsified applications.   Setting up shop within the DMV.   Apparently, there may be other conspirators as the CHP and DMV Internal Affairs are tracking down additional leads.

So, in all, they created documents that had false information to legitimize stolen and to illegally issue driver’s licenses.   Ambitious.  But criminal.   Perhaps in their next career cycle the foursome will be actually making license plates rather than issuing the documents for them.