A 68-year-old Wells Fargo call center worker who was fired after the company discovered that he was arrested and convicted in 1963 for putting a cardboard coin in a laundry machine has filed state and federal civil rights complaints against his former employer, as well as against federal banking regulators and the vendor that conducted the bankrupt check.
The Des Moines Register reports that Richard Eggers, a Vietnam War veteran and a call center employee for seven years, was fired by Wells Fargo as a result of federal regulations that prevent banks from employing people who spent a day or more in jail for what is dubbed a ‘transactional crime.’ Eggers was in jail for two days after his arrest nearly five decades ago.
Eggers' complaints are directed against Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve. First Advantage, the company that conducted the background check, was also cited.
Eggers' attorney, Leonard Bates of the Newkirk Law Firm, says that the complaints could lead to a possible class-action lawsuit on behalf of other low-level bank employees who were fired because of misdemeanors committed decades ago. ‘We have to exhaust our administrative remedies under the law, and that's why we've filed these complaints,’ says Bates.