(a) EPPA broadly defines ``employer'' to include ``any person acting
directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relationship to
an employee or prospective employee'' (EPPA section 2(2)).
(b) EPPA restrictions apply to State Employment Services, private
employment placement agencies, job recruiting firms, and vocational
trade schools with respect to persons who may be referred to potential
employers. Such entities are not liable for EPPA violations, however,
where the referrals are made to employers for whom no reason exists to
know that the latter will perform polygraph testing of job applicants or
otherwise violate the provisions of EPPA.
(c) EPPA prohibitions against discrimination apply to former
employees of an employer. For example, an employee may quit rather than
take a lie detector test. The employer cannot discriminate or threaten
to discriminate in any manner against that person (such as by providing
bad references in the future) because of that person's refusal to be
tested, or because that person files a complaint, institutes a
proceeding, testifies in a proceeding, or exercises any right under
EPPA.
