OT background check

I am an HSM. In my day job I am a water chiller Tech. We have a number of Department of Defense contractors in our area which we have chiller service contracts with. Must be a new policy. They all want a signed release form provided with social security no.,etc. in order to do a background check. I have told my employer I have no objection to a background check but I will not give up my legal rights. Each background check has a paragraph which releases them from liability/damages even if caused by their neglegence. Please read.

"In view of _________________ considering whether to allow me to perform services or to continue performing services for the Company, as well whether to allow my potential or continuing access to Company premises, facilities, and business activities, I release ______________ , any consumer reporting agency used by _________, and any individual or entity that supplies information to _____________ or any consumer reporting agency used by __________ in connection with this Authorization from and against liability or damages,including liability resulting from their negligence, that I may suffer as a result of the creation, acquisition, or use of any consumer report or investigative consumer report described above."

The blanks in the above name the Defense Contractor. I crossed out this language on the last Authorization. They rejected it saying it was all or nothing. I have passed all background checks in the past before this language was added.I have worked at military bases all over the southeast and the launch pads at Kennedy Space Center.I feel I am a "team player" at work but since I am only a few years from retirement I have rezervations about signing this.I have a skilled trade and have told my employer I will be working for his competition if he terminates me.I hope it doesn't come to that.Chances of me suffering a loss from this are about as good as me hitting first prize in the lottery. Still the reward does not equal the risk. What say you all? Am I being unreasonable? Has anyone out there had this problem and what did you do about it?Ron

why are you so paranoid?
i personally know a lot of the guys working for Delta II they were/are transferees from the old McDonnell~Douglas Missle Systems Company in Titusville and a finer bunch of guys you'll never meet or have the pleasure to work with.
besides if the company wants to know about you then they have their ways.
just sign the form and get on with your life.
unless your a illeagel
and whos the competition for Delta?
Lockheed-Martin?
between the two, and i have worked for Boeing and LockMart, i'll take Boeing any day of the week ...jim

The usual sleazy contractor boilerplate... if you want to fight them then you'll probably need to have a lawyer force them to negiotiate. Your risk then is immediate termination (assuming the state you're working in has a "Right to work" law).

Presumably management has calculated that the cost of losing an employee is cheaper than acknowledging and taking responsiblity for negligence on their part. As a contractor, your only value to your company from its perspective is the billable hours you clock- otherwise you are a liability and its more or less easy to shove an on-paper qualified new hire into a position.

Funny how the "team" falls apart when the issue is management taking responsiblity for their own actions.

Fine co-workers in no way predicts the quality and honesty of the management, particularly for the off-site management, only seen when large mandatory meetings are imposed where you are "thanked" for attending.

Not that I'm cynical...

Regards,

Greg

Check with a lawyer. In most cases these agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on.

Signing a waiver does not allow a company to commit a crime nor does it release them from liability for gross negligence in any case.

As for the rest, laws vary from state to state. In many states these waivers are worthless, in others they are acceptable. In order for the waiver to be enforceable, there has to be a benefit to you, and the company must discuss and explain the risks to you. If they don't discuss the risks and document that you understand them, the waiver is most certainly worthless.

Again free legal advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Spend a hundred bucks and have a lawyer look at it and advise whether or not you should sign. I have no way of knowing for sure what Florida law is in regard to waivers.

......"I release ______________ , any consumer reporting agency used by.....in connection with this Authorization from and against liability or damages,including liability resulting from their negligence,"


That thing certainly doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. What it means to me is that some ****head in a credit dept could write anything he pleased, and not be liable in any way.

Here in MT, all you have to say is you didnt know or understand what you signed and the contract is worthless. I understand what you feel tho. I dunno if it still is, but at one time it was illegal to use you soc sec # for anything but soc sec. Seems somehow that has gotten forgoten. The other thing that rips me is everyone one these days telling me how they are going to protect my privacy and the first thing they do is hand you a paper to fill out collecting more info than ever!
Still, the legal stuff above pretty much says we can screw you over and you cant do anything about it, I dont like it at all. That is not being paranoid. Not signing is protecting yourself. Agreed, the chances of re-percussinons are very slim, but statistics get started from somwhere don't they?
End of rant
Jim

They want all their rights, and want you to give up yours.

If there's minimal chance of taking a hit, I personally would tell them to stuff it up their release. If there's a big chance of taking a hit, I would tell them to stuff it up their release.

If they need my SS, then they have it already. Otherwise it's ambient temp for them.

I went through this.

I crossed out the indemnification of
liability clause, and initialled the crossout.

Under 'social security number' I wrote in,
"on file with employer." (duh. They pay
my taxes, guys. They already have the info
you're asking for! Another 'not warm fuzzy
feeling' moment.)

Then I signed it and passed it in. Never
heard anything more.

If they had balked I would have said that I
had consulted with my lawyer (wife) and this
is what she advised me to do.

YMMV.

Jim

This form is not your companies form but was given by the investgting company.

This is a second party release and may or maynot be binding.

Drug testing labs use this type release in case they screw up

The only way to find out if this is binding in your state is to talk to a lawyer.

Many testing or investigating companies use this to keep from being sued even in states that they are not binding.

I failed a background check for a mining company one time even through i held a state explosive license and had a state background check for that license.

if you were to lose your job the company would NOT be able to tell your next company that you failed a background check. if they did then you could sue them. you also would be able to draw unemployment benefits.

Greg Menke:
when i worked for McDonnell~Douglas, the parent company of Delta, the company president Sanford (Sandy) McDonnell started a corporate philosophy called "Take the High Road" in which he urged his company and employees to be good corporate and local citizens and be honest in all your endevors. not suprizeingly he was a boy scout leader around St Louis and he lived what he encouraged.
during that time there werent any scandals, as there have been since Boeing has bought out MCDAC, and it was a great place to work.

i find it more than interesting that Deltap hasnt made any more replies to his thread. maybe he got canned i dont know. but i dont know what a water chiller does anyway except almost make ice.
if he does in fact work for Delta at the Air Force side of the cape he has the opportunity to be represented by the IAM&AW who will look out for his work intrests, sounds like he may need that...jim

write ... signed under duress ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.. before you sign it .

then you keep your job and your "RIGHTS"


SIGNED UNDER DURESS reason if asked later "it was either sign or loose my job "

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED..... Uniform Commercial Code

reservation of rights no matter what the contract says


As for the SS # tell them to go pound sand .. under the social security privacy act of 1974 which the US Supreme Court has ruled applies to the private sector as well as the government they must first prove to you that the LAW requires it and tell you what it will be used for .

If my scanner was working , I would post some interesting papers on here .

I do not give legal advise. I research for myself and any discussions then pass it on to others.

well the way i got around it was show them my c.c.w. permit. that is all the back round they need. as for the s.s. they flat don't get it.

toolmakerjim:
No I haven't been canned. They would would at least discuss it with me before taking action as knowledgeable people are in extremely short supply at this time. I haven't heard anything from management. I don't work for a defense contractor but would be working in their facilities as an outside contractor.I have made up my mind not to sign so whatever happens happens. There is another job down the street. I do value the opinions of others who may have dealt with this in the past.I am on the left coast.Contractors here are Raytheon,Honeywell, and LM. Water chillers produce say 44F water which is pumped to air handlers with water cooling coils for comfort air conditioning.Nearly all large buildings are cooled with chilled water.Other applications are process cooling such as cooling for injection moulding dies or tank cooling for drug manufacturing. Oh yeah I was at MacDill AFB a few weeks ago for a day of work and they didn't ask for any of this crap,just a drivers license was ok.Ron

You don't have to be higly recalcitrant about
it, you can sign it but just cross out the
parts you don't like. If they ask why, tell
them you deleted sections on advice of legal
council.

The company you work for already has your SS
number. There may be some legal reason they
cannot give it to the gumshoe outfit. Probably
a legal one, if that's the case it's for your
protection and I would simply say, if they want
them to have that information, they should
give it to the investigation outfit themselves.

That way if they're breaking the law you have
recourse. As others have said, conctact a lawyer
because that way you get the best advice. There
are many who specialize in employment law
because these days there's a lot of screw jobs
going on.

Jim