Employment screening

The News-Tribune in Tacoma, Washington weighs in with a story about the impact of the anti-terrorism background checks on businesses. These businesses are connected with airports like Sea-Tac.

Problems with a new federal background check for potential airport employees could slow baggage delivery, delay cargo shipments and cut the hours of airport vendors at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and other airports throughout the country as the holiday travel season approaches. At Sea-Tac alone, more than 400 new hires are awaiting clearance from the federal Transportation Security Administration before they can be issued badges that allow them to work beyond the airport’s security checkpoints. Some of those newly hired workers have been waiting since Oct. 1 to see whether they passed the federal government’s security muster to work in secure areas of the airport. That’s the date that the TSA imposed a requirement that new hires pass not only a regular criminal background check but a new terrorism database search before they receive a security clearance.

If you’ve got a business that’s tied to an airport, you should dig deeper on this issue. You may have to do some contingency planning.

If you don’t have an airport-connected business, there’s no direct impact of […]