Background Checks Come Back to Haunt Area Wide Protective in Class Action

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A prospective employee is behind a proposed class action alleging defendant Area Wide Protective, Inc. procures consumer reports on job applicants without first making mandatory disclosures. As in many cases over alleged Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) missteps, the plaintiff here claims Area Wide Protective failed to disclose to job applicants and employees in a standalone document that it may “obtain a consumer report on them for employment purposes, prior to obtaining a copy of their consumer report.”

Coupled with the above allegations are claims that Area Wide Protective, a traffic control company that aids during construction and infrastructure projects, frequently relies on the information contained in improperly procured consumer reports as a basis for adverse employment action. From the lawsuit:

“[The defendant] typically does not provide consumers with a copy of their consumer reports before taking adverse action against them based on the information in such reports. In the instance case, [the plaintiff] was terminated from employment on the basis of information contained in [his] consumer report that was obtained by [the defendant] and, however, [the plaintiff] never received any pre-adverse action notice from [the defendant].”