2909.34 Declaration regarding assistance to terrorist organization - prospective employment.
2909.34 Declaration regarding assistance to terrorist organization - prospective employment.
(A)(1) The director of public safety shall prepare a document to serve as a declaration of material assistance/nonassistance for the state, instrumentalities of the state, and political subdivisions of the state to use to determine whether any person who is under final consideration for employment has provided material assistance to an organization listed on the United States department of state terrorist exclusion list. The declaration shall be substantially in the same format and of the same content as set forth in division (A)(2)(b) of section 2909.32 of the Revised Code.
(2) The director shall make the declaration of material assistance/nonassistance available to the state, instrumentalities of the state, and political subdivisions of the state, along with a then-current copy of the terrorist exclusion list. The director may adopt rules that govern the preparation and distribution of the declaration and the terrorist exclusion list.
(3) The director may adopt rules that establish categories of employment that are exempt from the disclosure requirements of this section.
(B) Any person under final consideration for employment who is provided a declaration of material assistance/nonassistance pursuant to this section shall complete the declaration prior to being employed. Any answer of “yes” to any question, or the failure to answer “no” to any question, shall serve for purposes of this section as a disclosure of the provision of material assistance to an organization that is listed on the terrorist exclusion list.
(C)(1) The state, a state instrumentality, or a political subdivision of the state shall provide each person who is under final consideration for a category of employment for which this section requires disclosure with a copy of the declaration of material assistance/nonassistance and a then-current copy of the terrorist exclusion list. The state, instrumentality, or subdivision shall not employ any person who discloses the provision of material assistance to an organization that is listed on the terrorist exclusion list.
(2) The state, or any instrumentality or political subdivision of the state that denies employment pursuant to this section, shall send written notice of that denial to the applicant within three business days of the decision to deny, along with notice of the applicant’s right to a review of the denial by the department of public safety if the applicant requests a review within sixty days of the mailing date of the notice. An entity that denies employment pursuant to this section shall send a copy of any notice of denial of employment to the department of public safety.
(D) The department of public safety, upon receiving a request for a review from any person who has been denied employment under division (C) of this section, shall review the request within thirty days to determine if the denial of employment should be voided. The department shall void that denial if it determines all of the following pursuant to guidelines the director adopts by rule:
(1) That the provision of material assistance to an organization on the terrorist exclusion list was made more than ten years prior to the time the declaration of material assistance/nonassistance was filled out, or the material assistance was provided during the ten years prior to the application and the date of the review, but at the time of the assistance, the organization was either not on the list or would not have merited inclusion on the list had it existed at the time, or at the time of the assistance it was not reasonable to know of the organization’s activities that would have merited its inclusion on the list.
(2) That it is unlikely in the future that the person will provide material assistance to any organization on the terrorist exclusion list;
(3) The person does not pose a risk to the residents of the state.
(E) The failure of an applicant for employment to disclose, as this section requires, the provision of material assistance to an organization on the terrorist exclusion list, or knowingly making false statements regarding material assistance to an organization on that list, is a felony of the fifth degree.
(F)(1) The state, or any instrumentality or political subdivision of the state, may terminate any employee who, after providing a declaration of material assistance/nonassistance pursuant to this section, takes an action that would result in “yes” being the correct answer to any question on the declaration, had the declaration been readministered after taking that action.
(2) No employer shall terminate an employee pursuant to this division unless the employer complies with one of the following hearing procedures:
(a) If the employee is entitled to termination proceedings under a collective bargaining agreement, the employer shall comply with those procedures.
(b) If the employee is entitled to termination proceedings pursuant to division (C) of section 124.34 of the Revised Code, the employer shall comply with those procedures.
(c) If the employee does not qualify for the termination proceedings described in division (F)(2)(a) or (b) of this section, the employer shall comply with the procedures set forth in division (B) of section 124.34 of the Revised Code.
Effective Date: 04-14-2006; 04-04-2007