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Question Details: Can a company who has contracted out a cleaning job to my employer refuse to allow me to work in their workplace based on my previous criminal history? I told my employer before I was hired that I had just completed a jail sentence and she was fine with it. However, when the manager of the company that hired my employer to clean found out, they told my employer that they didn't want me to work for them.
Filed under Employment Law | 1734 View(s)
Community Law Wellington & Hutt Valley
Yes, in your current circumstances you can be refused work based on your criminal record.
An employer or potential employer is allowed to discriminate against someone based on their criminal record, except in the limited circumstances covered by the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004. Under the Clean Slate provisions, you would not have had to tell your employer about your convictions if you had not had any convictions for at least 7 years and you had never served a prison sentence. But your jail sentence means Clean Slate does not apply in your case.
So your employer is not breaking any human rights laws by refusing you work based on your jail sentence. But there are some steps you could ask your employer to take. You could ask your employer to talk to the company to see if there is any way they would agree to continue having you work there. If your employer has tried to speak to the company and they are still refusing to have you in their workplace, your employer will be entitled to not use you for that job.
Your employer should also consider other sites you might be able to work on.
If your employer does not take these steps and you feel that you have been treated unfairly, you might want to talk to your local Community Law Centre.
For more information about discrimination in employment click here: www.communitylaw.org.nz
Answered 19 Nov 2012. The IMPORTANT NOTICE below is part of this answer.
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