Chapter 6 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 172I, as appearing in the 2002 Official Edition, the following section:-

            Section 172J.  Notwithstanding section 172 or any other provision of law, criminal offender record information shall be available, upon request, to any business located in the Commonwealth which is open for business on a 24-hour basis, for the purpose of obtaining criminal offender record information on an applicant under final consideration for employment or an individual currently employed with such business.  The business shall not disseminate such information outside the business.

Any employer that fails to obtain criminal offender information, pursuant to this section, on an employee that commits a crime against the person and whose criminal offender information includes prior admissions to sufficient facts to support a finding of guilt for committing a crime against the person, or a conviction or an adjudication of delinquency or as a youthful offender for such an offense, shall be assessed a fine of $1,000.  Any employer who so fails to request criminal offender record information or who requests and obtains such information and hires or retains an employee despite prior admissions to sufficient facts to support a finding of guilt for committing a crime against the person, or a conviction or an adjudication of delinquency or as a youthful offender for such an offense, shall be found negligent for hiring or retaining such employee in any civil suit filed by a victim or family of a victim of a crime against the person committed by such employee, during the course of the his employment at the business’ location.  Any employer who requested criminal offender record information on an employee within 180 days prior to an employee’s commission of a crime at the workplace shall not be found negligent in his hiring or retention of the employee, if the employee’s criminal offender record information, at the time of such background check, did not include an admission to sufficient facts to support a finding of guilt for committing a crime against the person, or a conviction or adjudication of delinquency or as a youthful offender for such an offense.  

For the purposes of this section, “crime against the person” shall include any offense in chapter 265 committed against any person.