New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced a settlement with online food delivery platform DoorDash for routinely rejecting delivery worker applicants with criminal histories without fair assessment, in violation of state human rights and corrections laws and the New York City Fair Chance Act. Under state human rights law and corrections law, it is illegal to discriminate against job applicants because of a previous conviction. In New York City, the Fair Chance Act requires that employers assess job applicants on their merits and qualifications, and that potential criminal history cannot be taken into consideration until after a job offer is made. In a one-year period, DoorDash rejected approximately 3,000 New York applicants for delivery worker roles based on their criminal history, without considering the age of the applicant when the offense was committed, the time that had elapsed since the offense, or any efforts at rehabilitation. DoorDash failed to provide those applicants with an explanation of their rights as required by law, instead issuing blanket rejections to all of the applicants.
DoorDash has agreed to reevaluate the hiring determinations for applicants rejected because of their criminal history, revise its hiring policies and training to ensure application reviewers are making fair and individualized decisions, and update notices provided to applicants informing them of their rights under the Fair Chance Act. DoorDash will also pay a $75,000 penalty, which will be distributed to qualifying applicants who were rejected.