Update Applicable to:

All California employers with 5 or more employees, and multi-state businesses with 5 or more employees with at least 1 employee working in California.

What happened?

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) has released an interactive guide to assist employees with understanding their rights under the Fair Chance Act and see if their rights may have been violated when applying for a job.

What are the details?

This is part of a larger Anti-discrimination statute called the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which is enforced by the Civil Rights Department (CRD). The FCA is coded in Government Code Section 12952.

This guide can be helpful to employers in order to ensure compliance with existing law and the expectations of the CRD. An exciting piece to this update is that the CRD has provided sample forms for employers to assist them in complying with the Fair Chance Act. The following are the sample forms available to employers:

·         Advertisement and Application / Compliance Statement

·         Conditional Job Offer / Letter

·         Individual Assessment / Form

·         Preliminary Notice to Revoke Job Offer Because of Conviction History / Letter

·         Individual Reassessment / Form

·         Final Notice to Revoke Job Offer Because of Conviction History / Letter

For more information, please see the links below:

Fair Chance Act Guidance for California Employers and Job Applicants

FCA FAQ pdf

CRD FCA sample forms

What do employers need to do?

Employers should review the above links and most importantly, take a look at the new sample forms and review them with their employment attorney to determine if they can be used for their business and make any necessary edits to more accurately reflect its operations and hiring processes.

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