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Man sues Amazon, staffing firm over background checks

April 13, 2015

A South Carolina man sued Amazon and staffing provider Staff Management | SMX claiming rejection for a “puller” job at Amazon based on results of a background check despite not receiving a copy of the report or a summary of rights, according to court records. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires workers receive copies of such reports prior negative decisions in order to allow opportunity to point out errors, according to the suit.

Gregory Williams of Irmo, S.C., filed the suit April 7 in federal court in Washington State. It seeks class action status to represent all workers rejected for positions at both Amazon and Staff Management based on background check reports and who were not shown the reports prior to the negative decisions. It seeks to include all such people from five years before the filing of the lawsuit through its resolution.

Williams applied for the job in November 2013. It would have paid $10.50 an hour and been temporary with possibility of becoming permanent.

However, a credit check done on Williams by Sterling Infosystems Inc. revealed a misdemeanor for an open container and a felony conviction for possession of cocaine. The suit says the misdemeanor belonged to Williams, but the felony cocaine conviction did not. It also claims the companies denied Williams the job based on the results before showing him the report and allowing him to correct it.

The suit argues Williams could have qualified for the position with just the open-container misdemeanor.

This case was recently filed, but a case against another of Amazon’s staffing providers was decided by the Supreme Court earlier this year. Workers in that suit argued time spent waiting to go through a metal detector at the end of shift was compensable, but the top court ruled that wasn’t the case.