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The Fortune Society wants one of the country's largest retailers to reevaluate its policies for job applicants and employees with criminal histories. The nonprofit organization, which helps the formerly incarcerated re-enter society, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Macy's Inc. claiming it had rejected job applicants, revoked job offers and terminated the employment of people with criminal histories. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jenetta Rolfer, a 36-year-old black woman living in St. Paul, Minn., whose employment as a credit-granting representative at a Macy's call center was rescinded...

Jenetta Rolfer, who is black, alleges that she was fired from Macy's over a decade-old misdemeanor conviction for not having proof of auto insurance. Macy's discriminates against black and Latino people by firing or refusing to hire people who have past criminal convictions, even if the violations were minor, old or wouldn't impede an employee's ability to do a job, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges. The Fortune Society Inc., a nonprofit that helps people with criminal histories to find jobs and reintegrate in their communities, filed the suit in the Southern District of New York on behalf of...

Macy’s Inc. illegally rejects job applicants, revokes job offers, and terminates employment based on old, minor, and unrelated criminal histories, a class action filed June 26 alleges. The retailer’s policies and practices “reinforce the racial discrimination present in the criminal justice system and result in unjustified racial disparities in employment opportunities,” it says. The complaint alleges violations of civil rights laws barring disparate impact discrimination, which focuses on neutral employment policies that have a disproportionately negative effect on workers based on race or...

Macy's was hit this week with a complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over allegations its background check policies to screen job applicants based on criminal history is discriminatory. The complaint, filed by Outten & Golden on behalf of the nonprofit Fortune Society, violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by rejecting or terminating employees on the basis of their criminal histories, which they argue bears no relationship to an employee's ability to perform a job. "When employers use criminal history to make hiring decisions, they must comply with...