Wal-Mart Prospective Employee FCRA Background Check Violations Class Action

The complaint for this class action alleges that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. did not follow proper procedures in obtaining and using crediting reports on employees, former employees, and prospective employees, thus violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as well as California laws.

The three classes for this action include the following:

• FCRA Class: All current, former, and prospective applicants for employment in the US who applied for a job at Wal-Mart, for which a background check was performed, at any time during the period beginning on July 21, 2012 and ending on the date that final judgment is entered in this action.
• ICRAA Class: All current, former, and prospective applicants for employment in California who applied for a job at Wal-Mart, at any time during the class period, at any time during the period beginning on July 21, 2012 and ending on the date that final judgment is entered in this action.
• CCRAA Class: All current, former, and prospective applicants for employment in California who applied for a job at Wal-Mart, at any time during the period beginning on July 21, 2010 and ending on the date that final judgment is entered in this action.

Plaintiff Randi Pitre alleges that Wal-Mart routinely acquires credit and background reports to conduct background checks on current, former, and prospective employees and uses the information in the reports for their hiring process, without obtaining proper authorization or providing proper disclosures as required by law.

The complaint alleges that Pitre worked for Wal-Mart in California from approximately November 11, 2015 through August 22, 2016 as an hourly, non-exempt employee, and that when she applied for the position, Wal-Mart performed a background check on her, even though she did not properly authorize it, and even though they did not give her the disclosures required by FCRA and similar California laws.

The FCRA requires that Wal-Mart had to make a clear and conspicuous disclosure in writing, “in a document that consists solely of the disclosure” that the report may be obtained, and get the employee’s authorization in writing. It also requires that Wal-Mart give the employee a summary of rights under the FCRA. However, the complaint alleges that Wal-Mart gave Pitre an inadequate disclosure, embedded in other information, and did not give her a summary of her rights.

The complaint therefore claims that, because of these and other failures, Wal-Mart violated both the FCRA and two similar California laws (the ICRAA and the CCRAA), even though it was a large corporation with sufficient access to legal advice. 

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: FCRA, Failure to provide proper notice and/or obtain proper authorization, Failure to provide subject with summary of rights under FCRA