FLRA Issues Guidance on Information Requests
The Federal Labor Relations Authority’s General Counsel recently issued a guidance document stating that Federal agencies must provide their specific rationale for denying requests for information from Federal employees’ unions when that rationale is employee privacy-related. The guidance states that the agencies should consider the privacy protections in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) when considering the distribution of information to unions as required by the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations statute.
Federal Trade Commission Issues New Guidance on the Fair Credit Reporting Act
Recent legislation has transferred the authority to issue interpretive guidance under the FCRA to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Withdrawing the 1990 Commentary now will ensure that this obsolete document does not transfer to the CFPB.
In 1990, the FTC issued a commentary on the FCRA (published as an appendix to 16 CFR part 600). Between 1997 and 2001, it issued informal opinion letters in response to selected questions that it received. Changes to the FCRA, primarily in 1996 and 2003, rendered much of the prior commentary obsolete. The new guidance reflects the FTC’s most up-to-date guidance.
Please see below for links to the documents referenced in this update:
The report is available at http://ftc.gov/os/2011/07/110720fcrareport.pdf.
The withdrawn commentary is available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2010-title16-vol1/pdf/CFR-2010-title16-vol1-part600-app-id1020.pdf.
The informal staff opinion letters are available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/index.shtm.
The formal withdrawal of the prior commentary is available at http://ftc.gov/os/fedreg/2011/07/110720fcrafrn.pdf.
The FTC’s press release is available at http://ftc.gov/opa/2011/07/fcra.shtm.
This change has not made a significant impact in our industry and background checks as a whole.
However, in its newly issued interpretation the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says that the term “employment purposes” includes “a nonprofit organization staffed in whole or in part by volunteers.” (See page 32 of the report.) Therefore, Aurico recommends that anyone who screens volunteers should consider immediately adopting the practices related to employment purposes screening. Aurico will continue to monitor the FTC and the FCRA for any revisions and changes as they relate to our clients and industry.
