Updated August 23, 2004
The Work Number provides authorized users usually within Human Resources departments with automated employment and income verification services of nearly 80 million employees of 1,000 participating employers. Participating employers include American Airlines, BankOne, Boeing, Cisco, FedEx, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson, K Mart, Lockheed, Marriot, Microsoft, Nokia, Pepsi, Sony, Visa and Westinghouse.
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) has received inquiries from consumers noting that their job title and other details of their employment, which can be used by prospective employers in making hiring decisions, have been misreported to The Work Number a division of TALX, a publicly traded company.
Problems brought to the attention of the PRC include allegations that job titles have been misreported, indicating that an employee had a lesser job title than indicated on their resume and inaccuracies specifically with Johnson & Johnson noting employee "termination" rather than separation. Possible inaccurate records may affect the ability for employees noted in The Work Number records to gain employment with job prospects due to perceived inflated job titles and indications that a previous employee has been fired.
Though this company does not believe it is formally a credit reporting agency (CRA) under the auspices of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), The Work Number notes that it does comply with the provisions of this law. However, based on situations reported to the PRC regarding The Work Number and companies that report to it this may not always be the case.
If you'd like to verify your job title, salary and status with an employer who is a member of TALX's The Work Number, call 800-996-7566. The PRC asks employees who believe their record with The Work Number may not be accurately reported by their current or previous employer to contact us.
