Fair Employment Practices (H 5262, H 5266)

Critical proposed changes to the state’s Fair Employment Practices Act were introduced in two separate pieces of legislation and would have made individual employee-supervisors, and not just the company employing them, subject to personal liability for their own acts of discrimination. Along with including these important provisions which can deter sexual and other harassment, H 5262 would have further expanded the definition of “employee” to cover a wider breadth of working personnel, including a protection for “domestic workers” who had previously been exempted within the statute. We strongly supported both pieces of legislation, but they both died in committee.