Is background investigation possible?

[Anonymous]

Hi! I want to know that is background investigation possible? As I was on leave and I don’t have any record of work of those days from the employees working in another branch of the company situated in other city? I would like to tell you that both branches are Australia based. Any help is appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible that they do a background investigation on you? I don't know about in Australia but it is possible under US law. Companies do background checks on their employees, but usually only before hiring them. It is much less common to run a periodic one (unless it is a goverment job involving access to sensitive information). Sorry if that doesn't help but we could use more information on the circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Here in the U.S., background investigations are often taken to a ridiculous extreme--clearly some regulatory intervention is called for. One time when I took a tech support job (no access to money), they ran a background check going back ten years.

So yes, even if you're applying for a job as a hamburger-flipper, they can and probably will run a background check to make sure you weren't convicted of stealing a spatula back in 1997 or something.

[RobertEG]

If a company had a policy of not doing any BIs, and it was found that they had hired a felon with an outstanding felony warrant, and then commited the same offense on the job, dont you think that civil litigation would empty their corporate coffers?

Background investigations are totally proper as a defense against later allegations of corporate negligence.

This is a litigous world, and they are just doing their corporate duty.