Christina Spicer  |  December 2, 2014

Category: Labor & Employment

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employee background checkOn Tuesday, two Maryland staffing companies, Allegis Group Inc. and its operating company Aerotek Inc., were hit with a class action lawsuit accusing them of failing to share consumer reports with potential employees when using those reports to take adverse employment actions.

Lead plaintiff Michael Craig Mitchell alleges in his class action lawsuit that Allegis and Aerotek violated the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when they used consumer reports and background checks to make employment decisions without sharing copies of the reports with employment candidates as well as written information about employees’ rights under FCRA.

Aertek and Allegis “routinely obtain and use consumer reports to conduct background checks on prospective employees, and frequently rely on such information, in whole or in part, as a basis for adverse employment action,” the FCRA class action lawsuit alleges.

“This practice violates one of the most fundamental protections afforded to job applicants under the FCRA, and also runs counter to longstanding regulatory guidance,” the background check class action lawsuit continues. “The Federal Trade Commission has long held that [FCRA] ‘requires that all employers who use consumer reports provide a copy of the report to the affected consumer before any adverse action is taken.’”

“A primary reason that Congress required that a person intending to take an adverse action based on information in a consumer report provide the report to the consumer before taking the adverse action is so the consumer has time to review the report and dispute information that may be inaccurate, or discuss the report with the prospective employer before adverse action is taken,” according to the background check class action lawsuit.

Mitchell alleges that Aerotek had interviewed him for a job in the Fall of 2012. During the interview, he completed a form authorizing the employment company to obtain his consumer report. According to the background check class action lawsuit, Aerotek told Mitchell that they would run a criminal background check as well.

Mitchell alleges that he was hired by and worked for a healthcare company through his Aerotek application. However, in the several weeks after he began working, the employment companies allegedly requested a consumer report and criminal history background check on him. The reports contained incorrect information, according to the FCRA class action lawsuit, including two felonies and three misdemeanors. Mitchell alleges that the employment agencies used this incorrect information to terminate his employment.

Mitchell further contends that he was not given a copy of his consumer report or background check until after his employment was terminated and that is when he found the inaccurate information. He claims he disputed the inaccurate criminal information, and it was corrected by the consumer reporting agency that sold the report to the employment companies.

Since Aerotek and Allegis “have hundreds of employment placing offices worldwide,” the estimated “size of each proposed class will number in the hundreds, if not thousands,” according to the FCRA class action lawsuit. Mitchell seeks statutory damages of $100 to $1000 per violation of FCRA, actual and punitive damages, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.

Mitchell is represented by James Francis and John Soumilas of Francis & Mailman PC and Martin Wolf of Gordon Wolf & Carney Chtd.

The Aerotek Staffing FCRA Class Action Lawsuit is Mitchell v. Aerotek Inc., et al., Case No. 1:14-cv-03691, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

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19 thoughts onStaffing Cos. Hit with Background Check Class Action Lawsuit

  1. JULIA GUERRERO says:

    Yes. Every staffing agency I go to here in San Antonio, Texas is doing the same to me. I been looking for office work for the past 3 years and cant find one. When I do ask for information or why I wasnt selected they just brush me off or wont call me back. That is a waste of my time. Something is going on. By the way Aerotek has been doing that kind of thing here in San Antonio, Texas since 2005. I was in the same situation as your client but that was back in 2005.

  2. Rachel Hedgecoth says:

    So my husband receieved one check and they told him that he would be receiving another but has yet to do so. Who can he call to see when he gets his other one?

  3. Tatium Anderson says:

    Well i recieved a ceck today for $1073 …

    1. Ashlee says:

      My husband received a check in the amount of $1073 also. We took it to Walmart to cash because we are nervous about putting in our account but they were not able to complete the transaction nor give further information as to why. Other sites made it seem that any other amount than the 3 listed would only be phishing for account info and the phone number to contact is only recordings and I THOUGHT I read something that said the email responses were being closed in December & now I can’t find it so any other information would be helpful.

      1. Donte Earley says:

        Is there someone yoy can call

      2. Ashlee says:

        Update: after calling a couple different numbers that all ended up being recordings regarding the suit & no help at all, we ended up just depositing the check in an account we don’t use as often. The full amount cleared after a day or so and there have been no issues.

  4. Sid says:

    Yup, $13.07 here too.

    Such a disgraceful, petty, unprofessional temp agency. I’d worked with many agencies after college. Aerotek was, without a doubt, the worst temp agency of the bunch.

    I was on a temp assignment a few years back. My contact, Maria Grundman, somehow found out I’d been interviewing for jobs in my field. I was amazed how she went from pleasant to work with to someone so unreasonably spiteful. She said they wouldn’t work with me ever again. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I’d been working with them for a few years by then. It’s amazing how fast this agency will turn on you. Disappointing and shameless behavior.

  5. Chris says:

    I was hired by amazon thru aerotek, i started and everything, i was even recording the first day where we were all siting and watching the orientation video on how they are so against discrimination and how they never make mistakes and literally at this time an employee came up and asked me to come with him, so i followed him out of the conference room and he handed me a cell phone and then i put it to my ear and greeted the woman on the other end. she asked me my name and i told her and verified that it was me, then she asked me if i was convicted of a misdemeanor in 2013 i told her yes i may have been and went on to tell her i fully enclosed my criminal history with aerotech and was assured that amazon had even convicted murderers working for them so i was never going to be questioned about my past but the lady told me that i had been terminated and to take it up with them but i said and then i heard click!!!!!!!! the woman hung up in my face so then the guy escorted me off the premises and i went back to aerotech and they had me in a cubicle and said don’t worry that was are fault we will just rehire you and put you on a different shift they said and we will start you at 1$ more an hour for your trouble they blamed it on it being a holiday coming with Christmas coming saying that amazon should have missed my record because of the volume of hiring that was going on, so i asked the lady are you sure this time? i have been sleeping at a low budget room since this has started because i couldn’t afford the gas traveling from Philly to Allentown everyday if the job wasn’t gonna pan out. But yet again i was assured they would guarantee i would get back in again so i trusted them and they did get me back in but then they said when i got there for my first day that they had me listed to start as a picker not a scanner and a different schedule so i left and came back the day they had on their schedule and met with someone totally different at amazon and now they say they have no record of me !!!!!!!! So now i’m out at least 2 grand in traveling / living costs and im over the top mad, my wife is pregnant shes yelling in my ear i’m driving and thinking and then BOOM i get into an accident on 22 east just my luck now my wife is knocked out from air bag and even worse it hit her stomach as well, and me oh i’m ok a broken hand minor concussion and 2 broken ribs i’m just dandy, so now thank god the baby is okay and she is too i was ok but my car was gone and we are stuck at the Lehigh valley hospital wondering what’s next in this f***ed adventure so i called a friend in Easton and he extended his welcome for us to stay at his place with his wife and children until l could find work and buy another car, long story short my wife had the baby but is now addicted to heroin and currently incarcerated and i am still without a job. what a great life !!!!!!!!

    1. Chris says:

      oh yeah i forgot i also received a pay off check for 21.82 on september 8 th 2017 lmfo what is that supposed to be an insult to injury!!!!!!!

  6. William H. says:

    I received a check for 13.07 we should hold out and not cash them..

    1. T. says:

      I received one for $78.00. For one I don’t know how to cash it. Because it came on a post card that told me to sign the back.. but there is no place to sign. And why do you say wait to cash it?

      1. Top Class Actions says:

        You can ask the bank where you should sign. You can also contact the settlement administrator with any questions about your check. Good luck!

  7. EVies says:

    I got a card for the lawsuit I did sign up for work with the temp service but they had me do a background check and a drug test and he said that I didn’t pass the drug test or the background test then I got another call saying that they wanted need to do another background check. So I thought maybe they had mixed it up some so I did another background check and a drug test and it said that I didn’t pass it again at that point I just moved on and didn’t understand what he was talking about.
    He told me that we don’t accept people that don’t pass the drug test and I had explained to him earlier that I had told him and the lady at the drug test place that I did have dental work done and I was taking Vicodin at the time. I had a letter from the dentist I also had those bottles of prescriptions with me one prescription was for the antibiotics and the other one was for the pain. He just hung up the phone on me. I kind of felt like I was a criminal or something

  8. Reinaldo says:

    I got the letter and they want to settle for $12.54. Outrageous!

    1. Calysha Lake says:

      What’s the website for the Aerotek lawsuit I lost the paper

    2. Ashley Hahn says:

      My husband got the same letter

    3. Joseph Zackery says:

      I got one for the same amount. Then received one for 20 dollars.

  9. Karma says:

    You must work for Aerotek?

  10. Kent says:

    Somehow $1000 for such egregious slander doesn’t seem like much, especially considering how often Mr. Mitchell will likely be subjected to repeated failures to secure employment as a direct result of this slander.

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