INDUSTRY NEWS
Lowe’s settles suit over background check notifications for $2.2M
The retail home improvement chain was accused of using background checks to make hiring decisions without providing prospective employees with copies of those reports, as required by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The case, which was filed in North Carolina in May 2013, arose when two applicants sued both Lowe’s and the company that the store used to procure its background checks on prospective employees, claiming that they were not provided with a copy of their reports or a summary of their rights under the FCRA. Those applicants’ suit was then consolidated with a similar suit that was filed in Florida in February 2015.
Lowe’s will pay $60 to each of the more than 37,600 class members affected by its background check policy.
Under the terms of the settlement, Lowe’s has now been released from all claims relating to its involvement in the background check class action, however, the claims against the company which generated the background checks for Lowe’s are still pending before a U.S. district judge.
The case is Brown et al. v. Lowe's Cos. Inc. et al., case number 5:13-cv-00079, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.
Source: Law360.com, 11/2/2016