DOL Employment Transcripts Versus Traditional Employment Verification/Background Checks

Employment transcripts as produced by the Department of Labor (DOL) for all persons who've ever been employed and chronicling the comprehensive employment history of said persons versus traditional employment verification/background checks would eliminate need for prospective employers to contact former employers of an applicant and present the risk of receiving unsuitable information that may unfairly prejudice the employer against the applicant. In fact, it should be unlawful for a prospective employer to have direct contact of any sort with the previous employer of an applicant regarding his or her employment or for any other reasons pertaining to the applicant.

Such communications have historically been the conduit via which often innocent persons have been blackballed or blacklisted, devastating the lives of the subject victims and those they care for, as with depriving victims and their dependents (including minor children) of means of acquiring vital resources so as to sustain housing, food, and other necessities. Victims have lost homes and other possessions that they may have worked years to acquire; and many have been and are presently homeless because of false information rendered to prospective employers by previous employers or managing agents of companies who may have personal vendettas against the victims. Some have even lost their lives due to such malicious lies.

No company should be willing to speak anything against a current or previous employee that they wouldn’t be willing to write; and, of course, if they write and submit any information about an employee or former employee that is false they’d be liable for defamation.

Employment transcripts, which would be similar to credit reports, would also facilitate the employment application process for employers as well as for candidates by eliminating the oft grievous, lengthy, and costly procedures of performing background checks on new or potential hires, as background reports would be included in employment transcripts, and by providing a base for job applicants to simultaneously apply for various positions without having to repetitiously provide demographics, educational, and employment history and/or other information that employers generally solicit in the employment application process.

Employment transcripts would additionally facilitate unemployment application processes by eliminating the need for DOL representatives to necessarily or directly contact employers or former employers of unemployment applicants.

Employee transcripts would entail each individual’s name, Social Security Number, current and previous addresses, and would summarize employees’ work history to date and provide specific employment beginning and ending dates, and salary or pay rates for each company worked.

They would also entail ratings or comp scores for each individual company worked that would be based upon length of employment, work performance, and attendance, and overall ratings for all companies collectively.