We had a large client ask us for background searches (through their preferred vendor and at our expense) several years ago. I'll share with you part of our reply:
- Background
checks and employee review is already being done within our company.
If we agreed to your new requirements, it appears that we would (at a
minimum after the first two year period) have to purchase background
searches through your service provider. This would be redundant, and
the additional expense would have no value to us. *IF* we were to
agree to the requirements, we would expect <company> to pay the
expense. To take this a step further: if all of our clients required
this, and we had to use their preferred search provider, we would have to
obtain background checks from dozens of service providers to satisfy the
requirements.
- Your
requirements state that we would need to transmit the background searches
for each of our staff to you, and to do so every two years. As an independent
contractor, this is an unreasonable requirement and one that sets a
disturbing precedence. We service hundreds of clients, and I’m quite
certain that our staff would take issue with us transmitting their
background searches to our clients – whether it be one or hundreds of
clients. We have an obligation to protect our staff’s personal
information, as well as our clients. Furthermore, is <company> transmitting the background searches for all of its internal staff to all
of its clients? I would expect nothing less than a mutiny from your staff
if you did.
- While we have
every confidence in our staff, we have to ask the question: What would
happen if a background search on one of our employees turned up something
that was unacceptable to <company> or any other organization?
Would <company> then dictate that we terminate such employee? We
feel that this crosses the line of our independent contractor
status, allowing <company> to have a say in our hiring practices.
- Are these new
requirements being equally applied to offshore contractors that <company> utilizes? If so, we’d like to know how <company> can
reliably run a background check on individuals outside of the United
States.
- Is there a legal
requirement resulting from new regulation that necessitates <company>
having background checks on file for independent abstractors?
In the end, we did not comply with their request - and saw no change in the amount of work they send us.
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