Florida Senate - 2009                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. SB 910
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                Barcode 100946                          
       
                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
                    Senate             .             House              
                  Comm: RCS            .                                
                  03/31/2009           .                                
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       The Committee on Governmental Oversight and Accountability
       (King) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Between lines 118 and 119
    4  insert:
    5         Section 3. Section 768.096, Florida Statutes, is amended to
    6  read:
    7         768.096 Employer presumption against negligent hiring.—
    8         (1) In a civil action for the death of, or injury or damage
    9  to, a third person caused by the intentional tort of an
   10  employee, such employee’s employer is presumed not to have been
   11  negligent in hiring such employee if, before hiring the
   12  employee, the employer conducted a background investigation of
   13  the prospective employee and the investigation did not reveal
   14  any information that reasonably demonstrated the unsuitability
   15  of the prospective employee for the particular work to be
   16  performed or for the context of the employment in general. A
   17  background investigation under this section must include:
   18         (a) Obtaining a criminal background investigation on the
   19  prospective employee under subsection (2);
   20         (b) Making a reasonable effort to contact references and
   21  former employers of the prospective employee concerning the
   22  suitability of the prospective employee for employment;
   23         (c) Requiring the prospective employee to complete a job
   24  application form that includes questions concerning whether he
   25  or she has ever been convicted of a crime, including details
   26  concerning the type of crime, the date of conviction and the
   27  penalty imposed, and whether the prospective employee has ever
   28  been a defendant in a civil action for intentional tort,
   29  including the nature of the intentional tort and the disposition
   30  of the action;
   31         (d) Obtaining, with written authorization from the
   32  prospective employee, a check of the driver’s license record of
   33  the prospective employee if such a check is relevant to the work
   34  the employee will be performing and if the record can reasonably
   35  be obtained; and or
   36         (e) Interviewing the prospective employee.
   37         (2) To satisfy the criminal-background-investigation
   38  requirement of this section, an employer must request and obtain
   39  from the Department of Law Enforcement a check of the
   40  information as reported and reflected in the Florida Crime
   41  Information Center system as of the date of the request. The
   42  employer must review and consider the results of the criminal
   43  background investigation and, if the prospective employee has
   44  engaged in past criminal conduct, assure that the employee will
   45  not be assigned to particular work that would place the employee
   46  in a position where conduct that is similar to the employee's
   47  past criminal conduct is facilitated and determine that,
   48  notwithstanding the past criminal conduct of the employee, any
   49  information revealed by the investigation did not otherwise
   50  demonstrate the unsuitability of the employee for the particular
   51  work to be performed or context of the employment in general.
   52         (3) The election by an employer not to conduct the
   53  investigation specified in subsection (1) does not raise any
   54  presumption that the employer failed to use reasonable care in
   55  hiring an employee.
   56  
   57  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
   58         And the title is amended as follows:
   59         Delete line 9
   60  and insert:
   61  civil rights; providing an exception; amending s. 768.096, F.S.;
   62  requiring an employer to review the results of a criminal
   63  background investigation; requiring an employer not to place an
   64  employee with a criminal record in a position where conduct
   65  similar to the employee’s past criminal conduct would be
   66  facilitated; requiring an employer to determine that the
   67  criminal background investigation does not demonstrate that the
   68  employee is unsuitable for the particular work to be performed
   69  or the context of the employment in general; amending s.