On August 4, the Brooklyn Events Center, LLC d/b/a Barclays Center, Levy Premium Foodservice Limited Partnership, and Professional Sports Catering LLC were hit with a putative class action alleging that the businesses use discriminatory criminal history screening policies to deny employment to qualified job applicants.

According to the complaint, the named plaintiff, Felipe Kelly, applied to work for a restaurant operated by Levy Premium and/or Professional Sports Catering at Barclays.  He was given a conditional offer of employment and told that he would be hired if he passed a drug test and a background check.  Kelly was allegedly then denied employment based on criminal history information uncovered in the background check.  He claims that he never received a copy of his consumer report or a statement of his rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  “Because Defendants never provided Mr. Kelly with crucial information regarding his denial of employment, Mr. Kelly was unaware of what information was being reported on him, unable to review the information reported about him for accuracy and completeness, contextualize even true information, review Defendants’ arguments (if any) for why they believed his conviction barred him from employment, and/or explain why he was nonetheless entitled to employment,” Kelly argues.

Kelly’s four-count complaint alleges violations of the New York City Human Rights Law, New York State Correction Law, the FCRA, and the New York FCRA.

We will continue to monitor the case.