OSCC Member Legislative Report – March 30, 2015
Review of past week (March 23-27):
- HB 3025 got a very significant hearing this week in House Business Committee. The bill makes it illegal to inquire about a job applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional job offer has been made. The bill makes convicted criminals a protected class with certain major elements of employment law. The bill compels an employer to prove that the criminal history is directly job related in order to deny the person employment. The bill also allows a job applicant with a criminal history to appeal an employer’s decision not to hire the applicant to BOLI, who can subsequently declare the employer’s action to be unlawful.
THIS BILL WILL LIKELY BE THE NEXT BILL OSCC ASKS MEMBERS TO ENGAGE IN.
- HB 2386 – the bill that gave BOLI the unchecked ability to issue cease and desist orders if the Labor Commissioner “has reason to believe” an employer has committed an unlawful employment practice – was defeated on the House floor. The bill was sent back to committee.
MAJOR VICTORY FOR OSCC. THANK YOU FOR ENGAGING ON THIS ISSUE!!
- Both the paid sick leave bill (SB 454) and the mandatory state-run retirement plan bill (HB 2960) were moved to Ways & Means to position for the end of session.
In the meantime, the Legislative Revenue Office came out with official numbers that indicate that the paid sick leave legislation will cost small business approximately $750 million per biennium in additional costs and liabilities. This number is roughly equal to the tax increases contained in Measures 66 & 67.
What we see coming up (March 30 – April 3):
- HB 2005 – the House version of the paid sick leave bill – will get some attention this week, presumably to send the bill to a different committee for end-of-session positioning.
- Very quiet week on the legislative calendar this week. No bills on OSCC’s tracking are currently scheduled for hearings or votes this week.
- NOTE – Please anticipate a couple of things in the coming week from OSCC:
- We will likely engage in HB 3025 and urge legislators to defeat this terrible legislation. OSCC will issue talking points. Please be on the lookout for them and please contact your legislator with these messages!
With the new cost projections on paid sick leave coming out of the Legislative Revenue Office, we will want to make sure we are talking about the cost of paid sick leave. OSCC will issue new talking points on paid sick leave to share with your legislators. We need to be talking about the cost now that we have the official figures.
