The Law That Will Alter Co-op and Condo Hiring Practices

The tool intended to open that door is the criminal background check. Under the Fair Chance Act, employers with at least four employees, including co-op and condo boards, are forbidden to inquire about a job applicant's criminal history until after they have made a conditional job offer. The law further requires that the employer give a written copy of the criminal background search to the job applicant.

If an employer decides to withdraw a conditional job offer after examining the applicant's criminal history, the employer is then required to give the applicant a written copy of the analysis of the criminal history, and the reasons the job offer was revoked.

Acceptable grounds for revoking a job offer are if there's a "direct relationship" between the criminal offense and the job's requirements, or if the hiring would create a "reasonable risk" to property or personal safety. Some factors boards can consider are the severity of the criminal offense, when it occurred, how old the applicant was at the time of the crime, and any evidence of rehabilitation and good conduct.

"Did the guy get out of Sing Sing last week for breaking and entering? That's a legitimate concern," says labor lawyer Robert Sparer, a partner in the firm Clifton Budd & DeMaria. "I've seen a job applicant who'd done time for second-degree murder, and no one did a criminal background check. Boards can still take appropriate action under the Fair Chance Act. But it's not clear where the line lies."

Other questions lurk. "We use a lot of summer relief when employees go on vacation," says Ellen Kornfeld, vice president of the Lovett Group, a management firm. "We always did criminal background checks on them — and now we can't until after we've offered them a job. How is this going to affect us? I'd like to hear an opinion from the union."

The union local, 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents 70,000 unionized building service workers in New York City, was part of the coalition that worked to pass the Fair Chance Act. "Good jobs can transform people's lives, and the Fair Chance Act is going to give more New Yorkers a fair chance at transforming their own," says 32BJ president Héctor Figueroa. "This legislation is a key step in reforming our criminal justice system, and it will ensure that men and women with a conviction history have the opportunity to get a good job and a bright future."

The first step boards should take, according to attorneys and property managers, is to remove any questions about an applicant's criminal history from job application forms. The second step is to refrain from asking an applicant about his or her criminal history during the job interview — which should be easy for most boards, since they've been conditioned to the perils of even the appearance of discrimination during the interview process.

But be advised: a misstep can be costly. If job applicants can prove that a board violated the Fair Chance Act, they can file a lawsuit seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorneys' fees. Wronged applicants can also seek an injunction, forcing the unwilling board to hire them, after all.