Florida Senate - 2009                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 706
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 670886                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
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       The Committee on Criminal Justice (King) recommended the
       following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment to Amendment (321972) (with title
    2  amendment)
    3  
    4         Between lines 92 and 93
    5  insert:
    6         Section 3. Section 768.096, Florida Statutes, is amended to
    7  read:
    8         768.096 Employer presumption against negligent hiring.—
    9         (1) In a civil action for the death of, or injury or damage
   10  to, a third person caused by the intentional tort of an
   11  employee, such employee’s employer is presumed not to have been
   12  negligent in hiring such employee if, before hiring the
   13  employee, the employer conducted a background investigation of
   14  the prospective employee and the investigation did not reveal
   15  any information that reasonably demonstrated the unsuitability
   16  of the prospective employee for the particular work to be
   17  performed or for the context of the employment in general. A
   18  background investigation under this section must include:
   19         (a) Obtaining a criminal background investigation on the
   20  prospective employee under subsection (2);
   21         (b) Making a reasonable effort to contact references and
   22  former employers of the prospective employee concerning the
   23  suitability of the prospective employee for employment;
   24         (c) Requiring the prospective employee to complete a job
   25  application form that includes questions concerning whether he
   26  or she has ever been convicted of a crime, including details
   27  concerning the type of crime, the date of conviction and the
   28  penalty imposed, and whether the prospective employee has ever
   29  been a defendant in a civil action for intentional tort,
   30  including the nature of the intentional tort and the disposition
   31  of the action;
   32         (d) Obtaining, with written authorization from the
   33  prospective employee, a check of the driver’s license record of
   34  the prospective employee if such a check is relevant to the work
   35  the employee will be performing and if the record can reasonably
   36  be obtained; and or
   37         (e) Interviewing the prospective employee.
   38         (2) To satisfy the criminal-background-investigation
   39  requirement of this section, an employer must request and obtain
   40  from the Department of Law Enforcement a check of the
   41  information as reported and reflected in the Florida Crime
   42  Information Center system as of the date of the request. The
   43  employer must review and consider the results of the criminal
   44  background investigation and, if the prospective employee has
   45  engaged in past criminal conduct, assure that the employee will
   46  not be assigned to particular work that would place the employee
   47  in a position where conduct that is similar to the employee's
   48  past criminal conduct is facilitated and determine that,
   49  notwithstanding the past criminal conduct of the employee, any
   50  information revealed by the investigation did not otherwise
   51  demonstrate the unsuitability of the employee for the particular
   52  work to be performed or context of the employment in general.
   53         (3) The election by an employer not to conduct the
   54  investigation specified in subsection (1) does not raise any
   55  presumption that the employer failed to use reasonable care in
   56  hiring an employee.
   57  
   58  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   59         And the title is amended as follows:
   60         Delete line 658
   61  and insert:
   62  civil rights; providing an exception; amending s. 768.096, F.S.;
   63  requiring an employer to review the results of a criminal
   64  background investigation; requiring an employer not to place an
   65  employee with a criminal record in a position where conduct
   66  similar to the employee’s past criminal conduct would be
   67  facilitated; requiring an employer to determine that the
   68  criminal background investigation does not demonstrate that the
   69  employee is unsuitable for the particular work to be performed
   70  or the context of the employment in general; amending s.
   71  943.0585,