A story from Macon.com tells of a bill currently pending in the Georgia state Legislature that would require employees who work inside the homes of other people – also known as “In-Home Services” workers – to have pre-employment background checks performed on them by their employers.

According to Georgia General Assembly web site, House Bill 263 provides that “any person offering in-home services shall conduct a criminal background investigation of each employee” and that “such persons shall not employ individuals who have been convicted of certain crimes” that would include rape and murder uncovered through the required background checks.

The bill requiring employers to perform background checks on people who work inside other people’s homes was prompted by a 2008 sexual assault of a nanny who was watching a 3-year-old girl at the time of the attack, according to the Macon.com report, and that the accused rapist – Rudolph Valentino Smith, 44, who was released from prison in 2006 after serving 12 years for fatally stabbing a man – worked for a house cleaning company that cleaned many homes in the central Georgia neighborhood, including the one where the alleged crime took place. The nanny escaped further harm by locking herself and the toddler she was watching in a bedroom closet, Macon.com reported, and Smith was later arrested by police and charged with rape.

The bill requiring background checks for workers who enter the homes of others tries to strike a delicate balance between allowing rehabilitated criminals to re-enter the workplace while at the same time protecting the safety of residents through background checks of in-home services workers, Macon.com reported.

MyBackgroundCheck.com is a leading supplier of consumer requested and applicant supplied “personal” background checks for individuals, including background checks for In-Home Services workers. For more information about background checks, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. Follow MyBackgroundCheck.com on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.

tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!