Iowa nurse sues over job loss caused by ‘patently inaccurate’ background check – Iowa Capital Dispatch

An jap Iowa nurse is suing a background-check firm for allegedly costing her a job provide.

Jennifer Malatek of Johnson County is suing First Benefit Background Companies in U.S. District Court docket. She alleges the corporate violated the federal Truthful Credit score Reporting Act, which regulates not simply credit score reviews, but additionally background checks made for employment functions.

In her courtroom petition, Malatek says she has been a registered nurse for twenty-four years and has a legitimate, multistate nursing license that allows her to apply all through the state of Iowa.

In 2014, the Iowa Board of Nursing alleged Malatek examined optimistic for marijuana use and had admitted to utilizing the drug. In March 2015, her license was suspended pending the completion of therapy and was then positioned on probation. In August 2016, the board discovered Malatek had efficiently glad the phrases of the suspension order and her license was totally restored.

In 2017, Malatek resumed her profession as a nurse and had no additional points with the Board of Nursing. In November 2021, she utilized for a nursing place with Aveanna Healthcare and was prolonged a conditional job provide contingent on the end result of a proposed background verify. In February 2022, Aveanna rescinded its job provide, citing the outcomes of the background verify.

Malatek then made inquiries with First Benefit, the corporate that had carried out the verify, and acquired a duplicate of the corporate’s report on her. The report allegedly failed to point she had a legitimate multistate nursing license whereas indicating she had eight separate licensing sanctions on her report.

Six of the eight entries referenced the identical case that had led to her license suspension years earlier than and two entries referenced the board’s subsequent discovering that she had fulfilled the entire board’s necessities. The report additionally indicated her license had been “suspended indefinitely” with out indicating the license had been totally restored in 2016, the lawsuit claims.

As well as, the report allegedly made a “patently inaccurate” reference to Malatek’s California nursing license being “suspended” in 2016, when it had really expired.

In her lawsuit, Malatek alleges she filed two case disputes with First Benefit, however the firm failed to reply to both.

The lawsuit alleges First Benefit “had the entire data obligatory to offer an correct report from the outset,” as evidenced by hyperlinked Board of Nursing paperwork that had been included inside its personal background report.

“As an alternative of using cheap procedures, as required by the Truthful Credit score Reporting Act, (First Benefit) blindly collects data from unreliable third-party distributors to repackage and promote in its personal employment screening merchandise,” the lawsuit claims. The corporate, Malatek’s lawsuit alleges, “has been sued beneath the FCRA by customers prior to now for inaccurately reporting skilled license data and/or disciplinary historical past.”

Malatek’s lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for “job denial, injury to her status, monetary instability, wasted time, sleepless nights, concern of making use of for jobs, and emotional misery, together with psychological anguish, frustration, humiliation, embarrassment and different losses.”

First Benefit has but to file a response to the lawsuit and nobody from the corporate or its public relations agency may very well be reached for remark Friday.

First Benefit was the goal of two lately settled class-action lawsuits filed by customers who claimed the corporate didn’t have their permission – normally obtained by potential employers through the software course of – earlier than operating checks on them. The corporate didn’t admit any wrongdoing however agreed to supply customers discounted providers to resolve their claims.