Making Missouri a meaner place to live
Take cover, Missouri workers, taxpayers and voters. Your state legislature has an agenda, and lawmakers are not about to let you stand in their way.
The agenda is called “fix the six.” It was handed to legislative leaders by a consortium of business groups headed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The House bought the package wholesale. Now the Senate is also working its way down the list.
First, in a year when schools are contemplating more teacher layoffs and larger classes, both chambers have passed bills that would phase out the franchise tax, eventually costing the state $80 million a year.
Second, the House last week gutted a statute that allows the minimum wage to rise or fall based on the rate of inflation. Never mind that 76 percent of the state’s voters approved that statute in 2006.
Third, over in the Senate, members gave preliminary approval to a bill that undercuts the rights of workers in severe ways.
Senate Bill 188 would:
Make it much harder for employees to sue for workplace discrimination by requiring proof that discrimination was a “motivating factor” for getting fired, rather than a “contributing factor.”
Muzzle whistleblowers by allowing a fired employee to sue only if the employee had uncovered “reasonable” evidence of a crime. Workers fired for pointing out suspicious dealings and possibly preventing a crime from occurring have no grounds for recourse.
Cap the damages in employment discrimination and whistleblower verdicts to back pay and interest, plus $50,000 to $300,000, depending on the business’ size.
Limit liability in discrimination and whistleblower suits to the business or corporation, while excluding individuals from culpability. That means an abusive manager can remain on the job or be transferred to another office without personal repercussions.
It’s a bill that rolls back the clock on worker’s rights. An employer could fire a worker for being older, or needing too much sick time, knowing the consequences would be few and the penalties light.
Plus, the bill risks costing Missouri $1.1 million annually in federal dollars because some of its provisions undercut the protections of the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act.
As last week drew to a close, the Senate was haggling over another heinous bill on the “fix the six” list. This one would require workers with occupational diseases such as mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, to seek a remedy in the state workers’ compensation system rather than in civil court, where a larger award might be possible.
Future debates are pending over the final two bills that would change lawsuit payouts in a way that would lower the overall damages paid by businesses, and allow the governor to issue bonds to pay back loans to the unemployment insurance fund.
The Republican-dominated chambers are ramming through the business groups’ agenda with no conclusive evidence that the “fixes” would create or retain jobs.
“I asked over and over again for them to give me one example of one company that has left the state of Missouri because of our employment laws,” said Sen. Jolie Justus, a Kansas City Democrat who protested Senate Bill 188. No example was forthcoming.
A Missouri Chamber of Commerce news release says the “fix the six” agenda would make Missouri “a more attractive and competitive place to do business.”
That’s debatable. But “fix the six” would surely make Missouri a meaner place to live and work. Shame on those lawmakers who have accepted a special interest agenda so unquestionably.
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