DMV Now Informs Employers of Workers’ Driving Mistakes

The state Department of Motor Vehicles has begun notifying private employers, for a fee, when their workers commit traffic violations or are involved in accidents. One labor official called the fee “spy money.”

The records already were open to the public. But under the DMV’s expanded “pull notice” program, the agency monitors driver records at a charge to employers of $5 apiece and then mails a computer printout whenever an employee gets a new mark.

John Henning, executive secretary-treasurer of the 1.7 million-member California Labor Federation, criticized the program as coercive. “It seems the state is getting into murky commercialism,” he said.

DMV official Bill Gengler said he was unaware of any concerns that employers could use the program to discriminate against workers, although firms can check on employees regardless whether they drive a company vehicle.

The DMV has been offering the same service to government agencies and commercial transportation companies under legislation passed in the aftermath of a tour bus crash that claimed 21 lives in the Sierra Nevada in 1986. The driver had a string of traffic violations but his employer was unaware of it.

The new program will keep employers informed of accidents, traffic convictions, license suspensions and revocations, and failure to pay fines or to appear in court.