The de Blasio administration backed a push Wednesday to make it easier for job-seekers with a criminal history to get hired.
A bill before the City Council would ban businesses from including the commonly used checkbox on applications that asks applicants about criminal convictions.
“We want New Yorkers back to work. We want New Yorkers able to support their families,” the mayor’s counsel Maya Wiley told the Council.
Under the bill, an employer could only do a background check after making a conditional job offer, and could only revoke the offer if they show the conviction is relevant to the job.
Wiley said the administration would ask for some changes to the bill, like exempting some types of jobs from the mandate.
“We want to look at positions in which there are questions of public trust where there may be criminal convictions that relate to the ability to trust the conduct of the person,” she said.
Ex- cons said they’ve struggled to find work after turning their lives around because their applications are often thrown out right off the bat.
Marilyn Sales, 52, said she’s been unable to get full-time work since she did time on drug charges in the 1990s.
“I won’t be judged by my past,” she said. “I am more than a felon.”
Angel Gairrido, 53, who spent two decades in prison for a homicide committed as a teen, said he’s been unemployed for three years despite applying to five jobs a week. “I am being locked out from securing a job just because I have a record,” he said.
But business groups slammed the bill, calling it an unnecessary burden that will open employers to junk lawsuits.
“Council bills that place additional mandates on employers send a really bad message,” said Kathy Wylde of the Partnership for New York City.
