Target to ban criminal history box on job applications
Target Corp. will roll out a national program early next year that will eliminate the box on employment applications that asks job seekers whether they have a criminal record.
The initiative, part of a budding “Ban the Box” movement across the country, calls for employers to wait until a prospective employee is being interviewed or has a provisional job offer before inquiring whether he or she has a criminal past. The idea is that ex-offenders will have a better chance at getting a job if they’re not eliminated at the very beginning of their job search.
“It’s a big deal in the sense that people with criminal records are going to be given a better chance at employment,” said Dan Oberdorfer, an employment lawyer with the Minneapolis law firm Leonard Street and Deinard. “So earlier in the process employers will have a completely open mind.”
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Greta Bergstrom, communications director for TakeAction Minnesota, said Target’s recent actions are in response to a two-year campaign the group organized involving a 200-person public action in the lobby of Target’s headquarters, a hundred individuals with past records filing job applications at Target and being rejected, a visit to Target’s shareholder meeting and numerous meetings, e-mails and phone calls with Target executives. “That’s why they decided to make this change.”
