ISLANDERS are missing out on jobs because companies are forcing them to reveal spent convictions.
Data protection commissioner Emma Martins says a dozen people have contacted her over the last year to complain that firms have withdrawn job offers after learning about minor criminal records from their past.
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Law allows most convictions to be wiped off people’s records after five years, but Mrs Martins says that some employers, mainly in the finance industry, are forcing prospective recruits to reveal everything on their record, no matter how minor and how long ago.
She says the practice is ‘endemic’ in the finance industry, and that Islanders are being denied a chance to get their lives back on track after getting into trouble with the law.
Article posted on 22nd February, 2008 - 12.00am
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