V.I. employers will be prohibited from asking applicants to disclose information concerning an arrest that did not result in a conviction, or in which the conviction was dismissed or sealed, if legislation approved in committee Friday is enacted into law.
“This measure was dubbed at the national level as the “Ban the Box Act,” said Sen. Nereida Rivera-O’Reilly, one of the bill’s sponsors.
“Ban the Box” is a nationwide movement to ban employers from routinely putting a check box on employment applications asking if the applicant has any criminal record of any kind.
Multiple news sources indicate 32 states and more than 150 cities and counties have adopted similar measures.
There are exceptions in the bill, O’Reilly said. Police applicants could still check. A health facility could ask applicants about police records for staff involved with patients or with access to medications, for example.
Deputy Chief Territorial Public Defender H. Hannibal O’Bryan testified in support of the measure.
“For purposes of context, it is extremely easy to be detained for questioning or arrested for a crime you did not commit,” O’Bryan said. “Often citizens are arrested solely on the representation of another without any corroborating evidence. Why then, should we as a society allow any individual to suffer denial of promotion, demotion or denied employment under such circumstances?”
O’Bryan suggested an amendment that when someone goes to the police for a police record “that they be precluded from providing anything but felony convictions.”
Assistant Labor Commissioner Averil George also supported the bill but suggested limiting it more.
“Instead of stripping the employer of this right, it can be altered to when in the hiring process it can be requested,” she said. George also suggested amendments exempting those involved in child care.
Voting to send the bill on to the Rules and Judiciary Committee were: O’Reilly, Sens. Marvin-Blyden (D-STT), Myron Jackson (D-STT), Brian Smith (D-At Large) and Janelle Sarauw (I-STT). Sens. Janette Millin Young (D-STT) and Positive Nelson (ICM-STX) were absent.
