question for people in HR or those who know the law

[user20124]

Can HR people in your institution check for city by-law violations? Would "failing to present proof of payment" in public transit show up in your check, and how much would it affect hiring practices?

FYI I am a university student in BC who pays for a standard bus pass for the year like other students, but the bus pass has to be picked up monthly. I neglected to pick up my bus pass at the beginning of the month and only had my pass from the previous month with me. I had intended to pick up the bus pass when I got to school. One police officer saw my pass and let me go, but another officer later gave me a ticket for not having the right pass. In contrast, a bus driver from the same day allowed me to ride when I showed him the expired pass, because he knew that students had paid for their pass during the school year. Yes, I knew it was technically a violation, but I did not feel it was necessarily an immoral action that warranted such a charge; I had falsely expected the second officer to be as understanding as the first officer or the nice bus driver I met when I rode the transit system with a pass that expired for two days before I picked up the next pass that was waiting for me. The bus driver said that he might only have refused to let me ride if my pass was expired for "two weeks or something".

My worry is that a potential employer will only see a violation on my record and a dishonest person. I will admit to being careless, but not to being dishonest or a free rider who never paid for a pass. I know of others who forgot their pass but argued their way on to a bus as well. The officer who ticketed me said I can file a violation ticket statement, but I see that it's apparently a request to reduce the fine only. Can anyone think of any way to appeal to some authority in or outside of the court system to make this go away, without appearing before a judge? Given this lesson, I expect to either go to the court and be rejected or write a statement and be rejected.

[eiad77]

I am not in HR but I do know a little about the law and to answer your question, I would be shocked if background checks included searches for city by-law violations.

[aaaaaa]

Can HR people in your institution check for city by-law violations? Would "failing to present proof of payment" in public transit show up in your check, and how much would it affect hiring practices?

FYI I am a university student in BC who pays for a standard bus pass for the year like other students, but the bus pass has to be picked up monthly. I neglected to pick up my bus pass at the beginning of the month and only had my pass from the previous month with me. I had intended to pick up the bus pass when I got to school. One police officer saw my pass and let me go, but another officer later gave me a ticket for not having the right pass. In contrast, a bus driver from the same day allowed me to ride when I showed him the expired pass, because he knew that students had paid for their pass during the school year. Yes, I knew it was technically a violation, but I did not feel it was necessarily an immoral action that warranted such a charge; I had falsely expected the second officer to be as understanding as the first officer or the nice bus driver I met when I rode the transit system with a pass that expired for two days before I picked up the next pass that was waiting for me. The bus driver said that he might only have refused to let me ride if my pass was expired for "two weeks or something".

My worry is that a potential employer will only see a violation on my record and a dishonest person. I will admit to being careless, but not to being dishonest or a free rider who never paid for a pass. I know of others who forgot their pass but argued their way on to a bus as well. The officer who ticketed me said I can file a violation ticket statement, but I see that it's apparently a request to reduce the fine only. Can anyone think of any way to appeal to some authority in or outside of the court system to make this go away, without appearing before a judge? Given this lesson, I expect to either go to the court and be rejected or write a statement and be rejected.

Um, I would totally just request a court hearing for the matter. A judge can easily cancel the entire fine / offense, you can also contact translink and the translink police directly as they can also cancel this thing. As for impacting your job hunting, lol, no, of course an employer can't look that up. Even if they could, an employer who excludes everyone who has a transit ticket, parking ticket, speeding ticket, etc, will end up with a very small pool of candidates to choose from.

You don't need a lawyer or anything to argue your case in front of a judge, and it's not like you have anything to lose anyways. You could also write / call the 24 / Metro / Vancouver Sun / CBC / Global / whoever, and tell them that translink has set up a system designed to make it more difficult for people to follow the law, and are targeting everyone who makes honest mistakes while the majority of the fare evaders get away. It sounds like a good story to me at least.

[Stinger]

FYI - Was a big hullabaloo across the media for about a week last month about Transit having no means of collecting or enforcing transit tickets.
You really should keep yourself up to date with current events... it could just save you $173

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2012/03/27/19558311.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/27/bc-translink-fines.html
http://vancouver.openfile.ca/blog/curator-blog/curated-news/2012/no-consequence-ignoring-fare-evasion-fine-cknw-report

I hate the new UPASS system, picking up a new pass from the school at the start of every new month is silly. If you take transit to class, how exactly are you supposed to get there without using an expired pass at the start of the month? Especially the fact you pay it all up front.

[user20124]

As for impacting your job hunting, lol, no, of course an employer can't look that up. Even if they could, an employer who excludes everyone who has a transit ticket, parking ticket, speeding ticket, etc, will end up with a very small pool of candidates to choose from.

I've heard the contrary, where someone claimed to be unable to land a job and their transit ticket was cited as a reason. It may be a made-up excuse, but that's why I'm asking.


FYI - Was a big hullabaloo across the media for about a week last month about Transit having no means of collecting or enforcing transit tickets.
You really should keep yourself up to date with current events... it could just save you $173

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/local/2012/03/27/19558311.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/03/27/bc-translink-fines.html
http://vancouver.openfile.ca/blog/curator-blog/curated-news/2012/no-consequence-ignoring-fare-evasion-fine-cknw-report

I hate the new UPASS system, picking up a new pass from the school at the start of every new month is silly. If you take transit to class, how exactly are you supposed to get there without using an expired pass at the start of the month? Especially the fact you pay it all up front.

We're supposed to pick up the next month's pass in the month before. So yes I was being forgetful.

Anyway, do you guys think I definitely deserved to be ticketed and that the fine was fair, and that I didn't deserve just a warning? This is not necessarily related to the law, just asking what you guys feel about the situation. To me, law is a socially constructed concept.

[yads12]

Screwed for lyfe imo.

Jk I wouldn't sweat it.