HARRISBURG — A Pennsylvania appeals court has overturned a lifetime ban that kept health aides with criminal convictions from working with the elderly, sick and disabled.

A Commonwealth Court panel ruled unanimously that the nearly 20-year-old ban included in the state’s Older Adults Protective Services Act was too broad and violated workers’ rights.

In ruling, Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt wrote that the ban “makes no provision for consideration of any other factor, such as the nature of the crime, the facts surrounding the conviction, the time elapsed since the conviction, evidence of the individual’s rehabilitation, and the nature and requirements of the job.”

The government had argued the plaintiffs couldn’t prove that every type of lifetime ban was unconstitutional and that a state Aging Department policy gave workers with convictions the ability to qualify for employment on a case-by-case basis.

The case was brought by a nonprofit that operates facilities for the mentally ill and others, along with five people with criminal records that would preclude them working at residential facilities or as home care aides.