BACKGROUND CHECKS PROMPT COMPLAINTS

NEW YORK (AP)-- The night Donald Ade was busted for buying a bag of
marijuana, he spent six hours in jail, paid a $1,000 fine and immediately
tried to push that "little trouble with the law" from 1993 out of his mind.
That's where it stayed, until pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly and Co. began
doing criminal background checks this year of everyone with access to its
facilities. Lilly barred Ade from its property, and he lost his
construction job.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, stricter security measures have many
employers scrutinizing the past of workers and job applicants, in an effort
to protect themselves from within. But some workers say companies are going
too far, invading their privacy by digging up information with little if
any bearing on security and using it as grounds for discipline.

"I'm all for safety, but there's got to be a line drawn somewhere. Your
privacy has to be worth something," said Gary Shults, president of a
Transport Workers Union local in Dallas, which has filed suit against
Southwest Airlines for the way it conducts background checks of ground workers.

Lilly has reversed its decision to bar 13 workers including Ade, who was
notified in late April he could return.