| Summary: The Office of the Attorney General, in conjunction with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, announced that 15 organizations operating in the state agreed to revise hiring practices and/or stop including language about an applicants' criminal history in job advertisements.
Under New Jersey's Opportunity to Compete Act (OTCA), covered employers are prohibited from inquiring about a candidate's criminal history during the initial application process and from stating in job advertisements that candidates possessing criminal records will not be considered for employment.
The enforcement sweep conducted by the state reflects the largest of its kind to date. All 15 employers were found to have violated the state's ban on incorporating prohibited language into employment advertising. Three of the fifteen were issued a Notice of Violation and subsequently reached agreements with the State, eventually entering into agreements for Assurance of Voluntary Compliance. Part of this assurance agreement includes that the employers must:
- Immediately cease the development/circulation of employment advertisements excluding individuals who possess criminal records;
- Adopt written policies compliant with the OTCA; and
- Pay all associated penalties (reduced to $250 from $1,000 based on good faith cooperation and pledges of future compliance by the three employers).
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| Impact(s): New Jersey employers |
| Summary: As a measure to support fraud prevention, Quebec's Bill 53 affords Canadian consumers in Quebec the ability to freeze credit files. The capability to freeze files will need to be developed as the functionality does not currently exist in Canada.
In response to both the bill and development of credit freezing capabilities for consumers, Equifax® Canada is implementing a new freeze designator code that will be generated if a consumer has placed a freeze on their credit file. Equifax® Canada expects that this code functionality will be released across Canada in October, 2022.
In order to accommodate the new code designation, customers accessing Equifax services via an integrated system connection may need to modify existing applications.
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