Penn. Transit Authority Class Action Alleges FCRA Violations

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A potential class action alleges that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when the agency did not provide proper notification to job seekers that they would use credit checks during the application process.

Lead plaintiff Frank Long claims that a job offer from the Penn. Transportation Authority for a position as a bus driver was pulled when his credit and background report showed a 1997 drug possession and manufacturing conviction.

Long alleges that he, and other job applicants, were not provided with sufficient notification under state and federal law that credit reports would be accessed and used during the job application process. The plaintiff states that the Transportation Authority will reject any job applicant for a position involving the operation of a vehicle if a felony drug conviction is discovered.

According to the class action lawsuit, the FCRA spells out specific requirements for telling job applicants that their consumer report will be pulled during the application process. The Penn. Transportation Authority did not meet those requirements for the plaintiff, or other job applicants, who had job offers pulled due to issues uncovered in their consumer reports, Long says.

The plaintiff further alleges that Penn Transportation Authority violated Pennsylvania’s Criminal History Record Information Act by implementing a broad policy prohibiting the hire of those who have felony drug convictions in their past.

“SEPTA routinely and systematically violates CHRIA by considering and denying employment to job applicants based on criminal conviction(s) that do not relate to the applicants’ suitability for employment in the positions for which they have applied,” alleged the plaintiff in his complaint.

According to the class action lawsuit, the plaintiff was hit with a felony drug conviction in 1997 after an arrest in 1994. However, the plaintiff alleges he has not had a conviction since. Additionally, the plaintiff argues that it doesn’t make sense to apply the conviction to the job as a bus driver with Penn. Transportation Authority because he had been working as a school bus driver at the time he applied for the job with the Penn. Transportation Authority.

The plaintiff claims that the Penn. Transportation Authority did not notify him that he would be subject to a background check as required under the FCRA. According to the complaint, the plaintiff was verbally offered the bus driver position the same day he was interviewed and that is when he was asked to fill out the background check form.

“The SEPTA form was not only unclear and inconspicuous, but, in addition, it did not ‘consist solely of the disclosure’ that a consumer report may be procured for employment purposes, and instead contained numerous statements and requests in clear violation of the requirements set out by FCRA,” the lawsuit states.

According to the class action complaint, the plaintiff seeks to represent a Class of job applicants to the Penn. Transportation Authority who were not provided sufficient notification of the consumer report, along with any job applicant who was denied a job operating vehicles based on drug convictions found in their consumer report.

Long is represented by Ossai Miazad, Adam T. Klein, Lewis M. Steel, Christopher M. McNerney and Cheryl-Lyn Bentley of Outten & Golden LLP, Jon Greenbaum and Mateya Kelley of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Michael Lee and Michael Hardiman of Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity, Benjamin D. Geffen of the Public Interest Law Center, and Ryan Allen Hancock and Danielle Newsome of Willig Williams & Davidson.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority FCRA Class Action is Long v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Case No. 2:16-cv-01991, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.