Photo by Jame Devine.

A bill to “ban the box” on private employment applications passed the Council on first reading by 12-1 today, with an amendment that advocates say will strengthen the measure.

Introduced by Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, the bill in its original form would stop employers from looking at criminal history until after a conditional offer of employment is made. That was changed to after the first interview in committee markup. “A number of organizations expressed concern that requiring employers to wait until a conditional offer of employment is extended was too burdensome to employers, who would be required to go through the entire hiring process before learning of the applicant’s conviction record,” a report from the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety states. “Employers would then need to restart the hiring process at a time at which previous applicants may no longer be interested in the position. In addition, requiring employers to wait until a conditional offer would also be unfair to applicants, who may receive a job offer, only to have it taken away once the employer learned about their criminal conviction.”

“The Committee agrees with this testimony and concludes that employers should be able to ask about a job applicant’s criminal convictions after the first interview.”

But an amendment from Ward 5’s Kenyan McDuffie restored that part of the original bill. Two other parts of the amendment state that an offer can be rescinded only for certain reasons, which have to be explained to the applicant in writing.

A motion to divide these amendments failed, with Councilmembers Mary Cheh, Jim Graham, David Grosso, Jack Evans and Phil Mendelson voting yes. An amendment introduced by the Council Chairman to indicate that employers may use a search engine to search for information about an applicant that doesn’t involve a criminal record passed.

In the end, only Mendelson voted against the entire bill, which will undergo a second vote later this year.