A Georgia employer’s application form requires that an applicant check the “Yes” or “No” box regarding any arrests or felony convictions the applicant may have had and to provide information concerning the arrest(s) and conviction(s) if the “Yes” box is checked. The form also includes an accuracy verification clause (affirming that the information provided is accurate and truthful). Joe, a 35-year-old Caucasian job applicant, checks the “No” box for arrests and convictions and signs the accuracy verification clause. He is hired as a payroll clerk and has been a model employee for 10 years. By accident, the company discovers that Joe was arrested in Alabama at 17 years of age for being the driver in a foiled convenience store robbery. The police subsequently dropped the charge against Joe because it was determined that Joe was unaware that his friend was going to attempt the robbery and that Joe fled in the car out of panic when the friend came running out of the store, jumped in the car, and fired a shot toward the store. At 19 years of age, Joe served three years in a New York prison after pleading guilty to a felony weapons charge and animal cruelty for shooting and killing a neighbor’s dog that kept coming in Joe’s yard to “do its business.” After getting out of prison, Joe legally changed his name. The background checks done prior to Joe’s hiring did not reveal his arrest, conviction, or name change.

Discuss the following:

(1) can Joe be discharged under Georgia law for falsifying his application,

(2) should an employer’s policy address the use of time limits for after-acquired arrest and conviction information in deciding if an employee should be terminated for falsifying an application and, if so, what those time limits should be, and (3) what you would do about Joe.