January 17, 2012 – The House Committee on Workforce Development and Workplace Safety, Chaired by Rep. Barney Fisher, will hear our Employment Law Reform bill, HB 1219, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Elmer, today at noon. This legislation is similar to SB 592, which is on the Senate Calendar for debate.
Associated Industries of Missouri strongly supports returning Missouri’s Human Rights Act to a standard that punishes employers who make an employment decision that is motivated by discrimination. Under current law, lawyers for dismissed employees are claiming that simply being a member of a protected class is enough to prove the employer acted with some prejudice. The federal standard requires the employer to be “motivated” by the discrimination – Missouri’s current law only requires the employee to prove discrimination was a “contributing” factor – a much lower standard.
The legislation would also protect real whistle-blowers, but stop frivolous lawsuits from people claiming “whistle-blower” status when their employer has not done anything that violates law, regulation or public policy.
“We were disappointed Governor Nixon vetoed this legislation last year,” said Ray McCarty, president of Associated Industries of Missouri. “This type of common sense reform is needed to protect Missouri employers that have not discriminated in employment decisions or dismissed an employee that is not truly a ‘whistle-blower’,” said McCarty.
We will keep you posted of the progress of this legislation in this blog. If you have not already done so, please enter your email in the upper right hand corner to receive automatic updates when we update this page.
Thank you for your support of Associated Industries of Missouri – the “Voice of Missouri Business”.