Youth Represent Files Class Action Lawsuit Over New York Life’s Alleged Use of Arrest Records to Reject Job Applicants
A job applicant to New York Life filed a class action alleging that the company denied employment to her because of arrests that never resulted in conviction. The complaint specifically alleges that New York Life’s uniform policy and practice, to deny applicants with such arrests, “flout[s] New York law, treating individuals as guilty of crimes for which they were never convicted, and inverting the fundamental U.S. legal principle that an individual is innocent until proven guilty.”
New York City and State make it an unlawful discriminatory practice to deny employment to an individual or group of persons because of arrests that were terminated in their favor. As the New York City Human Rights Law explains, “there is no greater danger to the health, morals, safety and welfare of . . . [New York City] and its inhabitants than the existence of groups prejudiced against one another and antagonistic to each other because of their actual or perceived differences, including those based on . . . conviction or arrest record.”
Outten & Golden attorney, Christopher M. McNerney, says: “This lawsuit is crucial to ensuring that New Yorkers are no longer denied gainful employment because of arrests that did not even result in any conviction, and have absolutely no bearing on their suitability for employment.” Youth Represent attorney, Michael C. Pope, adds: “These legal protections have been on the books for years now. For a corporation to still be ignoring the law, and harming New Yorkers in the process, is simply not acceptable.”
The case is Hughes-Phillips v. New York Life, No. 1:20-cv-10158, filed 12/3/2020.