Privacy Issues in the Workplace

iv. FACT Act May Require Employer Investigation of Furnished consumer Data 86 . The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT) amended the FCRA to increase the accuracy and integrity of information furnished to consumer reporting agencies. There are certain situations in which an employer can be a furnisher of data pursuant to FCRA. The FTC determined that certain companies, such as reference check providers, are consumer reporting agencies under FCRA. Therefore, employers that provide payroll and other employee related information to consumer reporting agencies as part of outsourced services will also be considered furnishers under FCRA. These regulations require that employers who furnish information to consumer reporting agencies must investigate information that an employee directly disputes to the employer. The employer is required to conduct a reasonable investigation to determine the validity of the employee’s dispute. These contemplated direct disputes require that the employee provide the employer with sufficient information regarding the employment relationship and the “inaccurate” information to enable the employer to conduct an investigation. The investigation must be completed within 30 days (an additional 15 days is allowed if an employee provides new information.) If the information furnished by the employer was inaccurate, it must be corrected by notification to each consumer reporting agency that received the incorrect information. v. Frivolous or Irrelevant Disputes Not all disputes must be investigated – identifying information, such as name, date of birth, social security number need not be investigated. Also, if the employee doesn’t provide sufficient information to investigate, the employer need not investigate. The employer must notify the employee that the matter will not be investigated because it is frivolous or irrelevant within five (5) days of making that determination. If additional information is needed to conduct an investigation, it should be requested. Furnished information should be accurate – i.e., factually correct and have integrity, i.e., substantiated by business records. It should be presented in a form and manner to minimize the possibility it may be incorrectly reflected in any report prepared by a consumer reporting agency. vi. Peace Officer Background Investigations When hiring peace officers, the law mandates that a thorough background investigation be performed. Government Code section 1031 provides:

Each class of public officers or employees declared by law to be peace officers shall meet all of the following minimum standards:

(c) Be fingerprinted for purposes of search of local, state, and national fingerprint files to disclose any criminal record…

Privacy Issues in the Workplace ©2021 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 28