Unlock - for people with criminal records reposted this
The Employment Rights Bill continues its progress through parliament this week, with the first oral evidence sessions of the Committee Stage. The Bill has already attracted a lot of attention as it introduces some key changes to individual’s rights. In addition to everything already discussed during the second stage debate, I am hoping there will be an opportunity to consider how the rights of people with criminal records in recruitment and employment can be protected via this legislation. Unlock have published a new briefing on the Bill to include specific proposals for amendments which would embed both existing and potential rights into legislation. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) sets limits on what information potential or current employers can collect and hold about someone’s criminal record. This relates to the right for people to move on from their criminal history. This right means that once your caution or conviction becomes spent, you don’t have to disclose it (apart from in certain exceptional situations). Yet in practice, due to the complexity of the criminal records system, employers may collect data that you have a right not to disclose. Then employers use the information they should not be collecting to make decisions about recruitment or employment. It can be very difficult for people to challenge these decisions and prove that an employer used their data unfairly. So we are setting out three ways in which the new Bill could better protect both businesses and people with criminal records. Our recommendations clarify existing rights and make them more accessible and enforceable. 1. The ROA sets out the right that someone should not be unfairly dismissed on the basis of a spent caution or conviction, however, in order to ensure this is enforceable, we are calling for a spent conviction to be listed as an automatically unfair basis for dismissal 2. Currently, an employer can dismiss someone at any point on the basis of an unspent caution or conviction but we believe that once they have been recruited – if the employer either didn’t ask about someone’s criminal record or decided it wasn’t relevant during the recruitment process, they should not be able to change their mind months or years later. 3. Although employers should not take account of information about a spent caution or conviction (unless the role is specified under the ROA), employers can inadvertently collect this information through unclear questions, people over-disclosing or internet searches on applicants being part of the recruitment process. We believe employers should be required to ensure this doesn’t happen. Unlock have set out our recommendations in more detail in this updated short briefing - https://lnkd.in/eR-P8zZZ