Thousands of Philadelphians with criminal records will get additional protections when job hunting under newly passed amendments to the city's fair hiring law.
The legislation, introduced by Councilmember Rue Landau (D-At-Large), expands the purview of the existing safeguards and changes the terms employers can use to reject a candidate. Current protections prevent interviewers from asking about criminal history in the early stages of the hiring process.
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"We cannot afford to leave talent on the sidelines when our city needs every worker to power our economy," Landau said during Thursday's meeting.
The legislation was approved 13-0, with Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier, Katherine Gilmore Richardson, Nicolas O'Rourke and Isaiah Thomas not present for the vote.
Changes to the Fair Chance Hiring Law restrict employers from denying an applicant based on their own criminal history fact-finding search through information found in public records, by a third-party service or in a PennDOT driver record.
The law would only allow a rejection due to criminal history if employers can show that the nature of the conviction makes the jobseeker a risk to being in that specific position. In that case, the hiring company would need to provide a written explanation to the applicant and give them the chance to assert their rights and provide evidence of rehabilitation. Misdemeanor convictions can now only be considered four years after a conviction, down from seven. Felony convictions can still be considers for seven years.
If applicants feel like employers did not comply with the law, they can now go directly to court instead of moving through the Philadelphia Commission of Human Relations.
Philadelphia has over 400,000 people with a conviction or some form of arrest, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2022. Jamie Gullen, managing attorney of the employment unit at Philly's Community Legal Services, said she frequently works with people who struggle to find jobs because of their criminal history.
"Our clients, every single day, despite their work history, their credentials, their talents, their determinations, face roadblock after roadblock as they seek employment because of old, irrelevant criminal records," Gullen said.
Philadelphia first passed the Fair Chance Hiring Law in 2011. Employers can run a criminal background check and use it to make a final hiring decision, but only after a conditional offer of employment has been made. This is the sixth time that law has been updated, according to Landau's office.
"We said then what we affirm again today, that a mistake should not be a life sentence to unemployment," Landau said Thursday.