Woman Loses Job Due to Error in FBI Criminal Database
By joshuah at 2 November, 2009, 7:51 am
A Maryland woman lost her accounting job after a background check performed through the FBI’s criminal database indicated, erroneously, that she was unsuitable for the job, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Eschol Amelia “Amy” Studnitz had been working for Corporate Mailing Services since August 2008 as a senior accountant.
Last July, after CMS won a contract to handle mail for the Social Security Administration, the administration performed a routine background check on Studnitz and other CMS employees, who needed a low-level security clearance to work on the contract. The SSA subsequently sent CMS a letter stating that the background check showed Studnitz was “unsuitable” to work on the contract. The SSA letter didn’t say what the background check had uncovered.
Rather than simply keep her off the contract, CMS decided to fire Studnitz. The company gave her just a few minutes to leave its offices.
Studnitz maintained that she had no criminal history and, indeed, the only court record the Baltimore Sun was able to uncover on her was a civil case related to a $11,676 judgment that a nursing home had been awarded in 2005. Studnitz told the paper this actually involved a suit against her late father’s estate.
Source/Full Story: Wired.com
No comments yet.