State Antidiscrimination Laws

Safety professionals should be aware that many of the state laws may vary in the protections afforded to applicants and anployees in the areas of discrimination and harassment. However, it should be noted that virtually every state possesses some type of antidiscrimination laws providing protections which parallel or exceed the protections afforded under the federal laws. 

For example, the Commonwealth of Kentucky possesses seven statutes which require employers with 8 or more anployees to comply and protections are afforded 

It is important for safety professionals to become familiar with the specific laws of the states in which your company or organization possesses operations or performs work to ensure that compliance is achieved and maintained with all applicable laws. 

Safety professionals with company or organizational operations should identify if your local city, county, or community government possesses any laws or ordinances providing protections to employees or applicants in areas that may not be encompassed within the federal or state laws and regulations. 

Two areas of potential discrimination where local governments have taken the lead in enacting laws and ordinances providing protection where federal and state laws do not provide protection are in the areas of sexnal orientation and gender identity discrimination. 

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State antidiscrimination laws Individual states often possess laws addressing antidiscrimination issues. These state laws may be more restrictive than federal antidiscrimination laws. 

In order to defend against a claim of discrimination under Title VII, safety professionals must possess a thorough and complete understanding of the claims process as identified by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Although many states permit employees to proceed directly to state court for claims of discrimination utilizing individual state antidiscrimination laws, many claims are initiated at the federal level with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Safety professionals should also be aware of the time limitations in which an employee or applicant can file a charge of discrimination. On the federal level with the EEOC, the time limitation is 180 days from the last date of discrimination. However, safety professionals should be aware that under many state antidiscrimination laws, employees or applicants can be provided 300 days from the date of discrimination to file the charge of discrimination. Charges of discrimination that have exceeded the time limitations are usually discharged. 

Acquire a general understanding of the correlating state antidiscrimination laws. 

Disability or handicap antidiscrimination laws State laws may provide different or broader protections in the areas of handicap and/or disability than federal laws provide. 

Other federal laws, safety professionals should be aware that there is a posting requirement for ADEA, and the EEOC is the governing federal agency. Again, as with the other federal antidiscrimination laws, safety professionals should be aware that many states also possess similar laws protecting older workers and many of these laws may offer more protection than the ADEA. 

Although we covered a broad spectrum of the major federal antidiscrimination laws earlier in this text, safety professionals should be aware that there are other federal laws and directives as well as state and local laws that prohibit discrimination and harassment in the workplace. These laws include, but are not limited to, the following ... 

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