LEGAL UPDATE
The Limits of Screening Overseas
In the United States, employers are accustomed to a relatively unregulated multibillion-dollar screening industry that can uncover lots of information about an applicant's past. When the screening takes place overseas, though, employers face a very different reality. Throughout much of the world outside the United States, an applicant's privacy rights trumps an employer's right to collect information about a potential employee.
Employers should assume that their screening practices will be restricted, even when a foreign applicant will be working in the United States. In the European Union, for example, criminal background checks are very limited (if they're allowed at all) and credit checks are even more limited and are rarely performed.
So, what's the reason for the differences in level of screening? The factors - such as employee theft, fraud and workplace violence - that prompt high levels of screening in the United States are not big problems in many overseas locations. In addition, less stringent legal liabilities diminish the need for screening. Privacy rights are also given a greater appreciation abroad than here in the United States.
U.S. employers conducting business abroad often conduct the maximum amount of screening allowed by law, but that's likely about to change. Although laws concerning background screening are still emerging in much of the world, the trend is moving toward a stricter, more European-based philosophy rather than a more open and unregulated American approach.
For more information on international screening solutions, contact InfoMart at 770-984-2727 option 4 or sales@infomart-usa.com.
(Source: http://www.workforce.com)
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