PA Freedom Caucus Urges Biden Administration to Drop Lawsuit Against Popular Pennsylvania Gas Station
Biden’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Slaps Sheetz with Frivolous Lawsuit
Harrisburg, PA- It must not be enough for the Biden administration to cut into Pennsylvanians’ purchasing power and make it harder to fill up gas tanks and feed families, while taking more of their hard-earned tax dollars to settle the college debts of anti-Semitic rioters. Now the least popular White House in the last century seems poised to attack one of the Keystone State’s most popular gas-and-food stops.
Altoona-based Sheetz, a Pennsylvania mainstay, has been hit with a lawsuit alleging discrimination for utilizing criminal background checks in its hiring process. The employer of thousands across the Commonwealth already had to contest with an awkward and oddly scripted campaign visit from Biden last month. Now it must defend itself in court for using one of the most common and sensible hiring tools available: criminal background checks.
“This is a typical, heavy-handed attempt from the Biden administration to exert its will on businesses,” said Freedom Caucus member Rep. Wendy Fink (R-York). “Biden will stop at nothing to use his departments to bully businesses into submission. Let it be known that this lawsuit is a slap in the face to millions of Pennsylvanians who stop at Sheetz to fill up and refresh on a weekly basis.”
“To argue that criminal background checks are discriminatory in the hiring process is foolish,” said PAFC member Rep. Dave Zimmerman (Lancaster/Berks). Companies have the right not to unknowingly hire ex-criminals to staff their stations. This is yet more executive intimidation from POTUS.”
I'm a retired litigation attorney. I'm not licensed in Pennsylvania and am not allowed to give legal advice there. That said, there exists an actionable tort for negligent hiring and retention of employees. If you operate a business and hire an employee who harms a customer, you can be held liable. E.g., if you are a physician and hire an incompetent nurse who harms a patient, you will be held liable if you failed to check out the "nurse's" credentials and background. https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/insights/legal/practical-guidance-journal/b/pa/posts/best-practices-for-prevention-and-defense-of-negligent-hiring-retention-and-supervision-claims
I would always tell my clients that they must check out job applicants!