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From the
Daily News:
Private preschools hired for Mayor de Blasio’s 3-K for All classes have racked up dozens of health violations for a variety of offenses, city records show.
All but one of the 13 private operators hired by the city to offer preschool lessons under de Blasio’s signature second-term education initiative have been hit with violations over the last three years. They include failing to conduct background checks, putting sick workers on the job with kids and failing to supervise children.
In total, the dozen operators had 72 violations and all have been corrected. But activists and parents said they’re still nervous that kids aren’t safe.
From
Fox News/AP:
One applicant to be a New York City correction officer had been fired from his last job as a security guard for stealing. Another admitted he had regularly socialized with gang members. Another had debts of more than $400,000.
Yet all those candidates and dozens like them were hired last year to be part of the force overseeing nearly 11,000 inmates on Rikers Island, according to a yearlong city probe of jail hiring practices released Thursday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the findings hours before they were to be announced.
The probe found systemic problems with the Department of Correction hiring system, including no recruiting strategy for the past six years, that allowed an alarmingly high number of hires who had arrest records, gang ties or other red flags that are markers for corruption.
Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters said the chronic problems of violence, smuggling and bribery that plague the city jails can all be traced to the character and qualifications of the employees.
City investigators randomly pulled 153 application files of guards hired last year and found that 54 — or 35 percent — "presented significant red flags that should have either precluded their hiring outright or required further follow-up."
The probe found 79 hired officers admitted having friends or family members who were inmates — including one with nine relatives who had done time in Rikers. Ten new hires had been arrested more than once, and another 12 had been rejected by the significantly higher standards of the New York Police Department, including six for psychological reasons and one who failed a drug test.
From the
Daily News:
Businesses would be banned from asking job applicants about their criminal records under a proposed city law.
The bill, which will be introduced this week, would prohibit commonly used check boxes on applications asking if the job seeker has been convicted of a crime, or any questions about the job seeker’s criminal record until after a job offer has been made.
“It’s extremely difficult for people who have convictions to get jobs,” said sponsor Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn). “It’s disheartening. If you’ve paid your debt to society, you should not have to do that again.”
Employers could be hit with $1,000 in damages if they asked about an applicant’s criminal record too soon.
The city already bars asking about convictions for government jobs, but the new bill would extend the mandate to all employers.
Under the bill, known as the “Fair Chance Act,” employers would only be able to retract a job offer if they discovered a conviction related to the job or that posed an undue risk to their business.
Jobs that require background checks would be unaffected by the changes.
