State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, announced his bill Monday he says restores federal civil rights to state and University of Wisconsin System employees.
Presently, federal laws such as the Family Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Labor Standard Act and the Age Discrimination Employment Act do not apply in full to state and university employees in Wisconsin the way they do to private employees in the state.
The Supreme Court ruled in various cases over the past decade that states’ rights prevented them from being sued, prohibiting state employees from suing their employer on the basis of discrimination.
However, in their rulings, the court declared that states were free to enact individual laws that would reverse the decision if they chose.
While Wisconsin currently has no such law, Mason’s bill would allow state and university employees to sue their employers for discrimination on the basis of federal discrimination laws.
“The court unfortunately said they don’t believe state employees get equal protection under the law because of the 11th Amendment,” Mason said. “We’re restoring the same civil rights that every other employee in the state gets to over 60,000 employees.”
Mason added he did not believe the writers of the Constitution meant to exclude state employees from civil rights and this bill would restore equality and justice to all employees in Wisconsin.
The bill was supported by various Wisconsin organizations including American Association of Retired Persons, the American Civil Liberties Union, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 24, American Federation of Teachers, the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired.
According to Gary Goyke, spokesperson for the Council of the Blind and Visually Impaired, the bill would help benefit the type of people his organization represents.
“We have a number of very active people who have been state employees or benefited from university programs,” Goyke said. “This is just good public policy.”
According to Wisconsin AARP spokesperson Jim Flaherty, his organization also got involved for similar reasons.
“AARP is about doing what’s best for society, and we think what’s best for our state is that state employees are not treated as second-class citizens,” Flaherty said. “People should never be discriminated against for any reason, especially age and disabilities. What we want is fairness.”
However, not everyone is supporting the bill. According to Joint Finance Committee Co-Chair Rep. Robin Vos, R-Racine, the proposal would hurt the state due to the current economic climate.
“Most state employees are already covered by selective bargaining agreements and what Wisconsin doesn’t need is giving people more reasons to sue the state than they already do,” Vos said. “At a time when we’re scraping for every nickel, we don’t need to open the state up to more lawsuits.”
The bill was introduced last year in both the Senate and Assembly, but did not pass. It is presently circulating through an Assembly committee before being introduced to the entire Assembly body.
Correction: Due to a reporting error, this article incorrectly stated the State Bar of Wisconsin supported a new civil rights bill being introduced in the state Senate, when it was actually supported by the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section. We regret the error.
