Legal Question in Employment Law in New York
I recently applied for an airline job as a flight attendant with a NY based airline and was hired. I have twenty seven years of experience with other airlines. Before I could attend a 3 week training course in Ny I had to be finger printed and take a drug test which I past. Approximately a week later I received a call from the vice president of inflight services. She told me I did not disclose information about a DWI violation I had in 1993 on my application. I told her when I filled out the application it stated they would do a ten year security background check. For that reason I did not mention the DWI incident. I was told I could not work for them because of this very same reason. I asked if there was anything I could do to rectify the situation. She said "no", thanked me for applying and hung up.
My question is this: Is it legal for them to deny me the job because of a DWI which occurred 16 years ago. I was under the assumption they cannot go beyond ten years for a background check? Is this a form of discrimination? Do I have any legal rights in this matter and how can I go about having this offense expunged from my records?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Yes. In your case you can be denied employment for any reason as long as it is not an illegal reason. It looks like your DWI may be appearing on a criminal background check although it appears that you may have been designed as a disorderly person rather than a more severe designation of having a felony conviction (this is assuming that no person was physically harmed as a result of you driving intoxicated). Fortunately, you live in N.J. and they have an expungement statute. I would advice you to obtain legal services for a complete background check and proceed with getting the DWI expunged from your background record.
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