News about current legislation affecting workplace rights before the U.S. Congress and the legislatures of all 50 states.
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Senate panel balks at adding gays to anti-discrimination law
Source: Rosalind S. Helderman, Washington Post
Date: February 9, 2006
A [Virginia] Senate committee rejected a bill that would have banned
workplace discrimination against government employees who are gay. Gay workers at state agencies are protected
from discrimination in hiring and promotions by an executive order issued by Mark Warner in December, before he
left the governor's office, and renewed by his successor, Timothy Kaine. Two Democratic senators proposed
making those protections a permanent part of state law and extending them to employees of local governments,
school boards and sheriff's offices. [They] argued that the protections should be part of the state code, not
subject to an executive order that must be renewed every four years.
Source: Editorial, Washington Post
Date: February 8, 2006
Virginia has come late to the idea that employees and job-seekers should not be
discriminated against because they may be homosexual. Now it has a chance to embrace the obvious justice of
that policy. It is crucial that the opportunity not be missed. The General Assembly is considering legislation
to codify that principled stance and extend it to local governments and school systems. It's as close to a
no-brainer as legislation gets, but anti-gay legislators may still be able to kill it. The legislation would
simply do what nearly all of Virginia's largest corporate employers and universities have already done: outlaw
a particularly noxious form of bigotry whose day has quite definitely passed.
Assembly fixes flub that gave day of rest
Source: Louis Hansen, Virginian-Pilot
Date: July 14, 2004
In their second special session of the year, Virginia lawmakers spent 3½ hours fixing an
embarrassing legislative mistake. Business advocates said an attempt earlier this year to strike the state's
long-dormant "blue laws" from the books actually opened a loophole that could have allowed workers to demand a
day off on weekends. Both houses of the General Assembly, after legal parsing and re-writing, passed a fix-it
bill overwhelmingly; the new legislation restores a list of businesses exempted from both the blue laws and the
day of rest law. Gov. Mark R. Warner immediately signed it.
Va. workers seek Sundays off under law
Source: Stephanie Stoughton, Associated Press, MLive.com
Date: July 7, 2004
Workers across Virginia have been telling their bosses that they
want Sundays off after learning of a legislative mistake that resurrected a "day-of-rest" law for all
employees. The "day-of-rest" law was brought to life in the last session of the General Assembly when lawmakers
mistakenly deleted exemptions that let most of the state's private businesses assign people to work on their
Sabbath. Businesses are placing increasing pressure on state officials to reverse the legislative action. Gov.
Mark R. Warner is expected to issue a call Thursday for the General Assembly to reconvene next week to fix the
mistake, his office said Wednesday.
Source: K. Payne, Daily Press [Virginia]
Date: July 1, 2004
Private employers across Virginia will have to give workers a day of rest on Saturday or
Sunday--or pay triple wages for weekend hours--because of a law scheduled to go into effect today. The bill was
sponsored by Sen. Frederick M. Quayle, R-Chesapeake, and passed by the General Assembly this year. It was
intended to rid the law books of obscure amendments to the state's "blue laws," which allowed for a day of
rest on Sunday. Instead, the legislation eliminated the exemptions that allowed private employers to ignore the
law and have weekend workers or seven-day workweeks. The error has business leaders scrambling and government
officials seeking a quick fix before the General Assembly returns in January.
