Oregon Musicians No Longer Presumed Employees for Unemployment Purposes
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Sine die! The Oregon Legislature's biennial session has come to a close, providing a perfect opportunity for the World of Work to take a look at what passed, what failed, and what flew under the radar.
One helpful new statute fixes a problem for employers who operate music venues. In late 2007, Mississippi Studios, a hip North Portland nightspot and recording studio, got nailed in an Oregon Employment Department audit for not paying unemployment taxes on musicians who played at the venue. Mississippi assumed that the musicians were not employees, but were independent contractors according to the Department's test. Not so fast. Mississippi was unaware of ORS 657.506, an obscure provision in Oregon statute that presumed musicians are employees unless otherwise stated in an employment agreement.
The new statute, which went into effect immediately on passage, repeals the old rule and treats Oregon musicians just like everybody else. The bill is simply drafted and repairs some bad lawmaking. Way to go, legislature! This time you were up there with the best.
President Obama to Sign Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on January 29, 2009
As expected, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed Congress (the House passed the Senate version 250-177 on January 27). President Obama has announced he will sign the bill into law--the very first bill he will sign--on January 29. The Act will overturn a U.S. Supreme Court decision that limited the time frame for bringing pay discrimination claims. (For more information on the Act and its history, check out this previous post here at the World of Work).
Here's an important wrinkle: as passed, the Act will be retroactive, and will apply to all claims of discrimination in compensation that are pending on or after May 28, 2007. This may have an impact on many pending unfair and unequal pay lawsuits.
Ledbetter, Fair Pay Acts Pass House
There was a lot of fairness on Capitol Hill last week: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act both passed the House of Representatives on Friday, January 9, 2009. For those of you keeping score at home, the Ledbetter Act passed 247-171, and the Paycheck Fairness Act passed 256-163. Both bills will proceed to the Senate, and they are expected to pass there as well.
The Ledbetter Act is named after a losing plaintiff in an oft-criticized Supreme Court case, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 (2007). There, the Court held that the time limits for filing a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) start to run when the employer makes a discriminatory decision about the employee's compensation, not each time the employee receives a paycheck affected by discrimination. The proposed Act would reverse that ruling by amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act to provide that the filing periods—300 days in most states and 180 days in the few states that do not have a fair employment agency—would be triggered whenever an employee is affected by a discriminatory compensation decision or practice.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would increase remedies in Equal Pay Act cases, making available compensatory and punitive damages, authorizing class actions, and mandating training and other outreach efforts by the EEOC and the Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs on wage discrimination issues.
ADA Amendments Act Passes House - Next Stop White House
The ADA Amendments Act ("ADAAA") was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier today. For more information, read the House's Press Release. As reported previously by the World of Work, the same version of the bill was recently approved by the U.S. Senate.
The next stop for the ADAAA is the White House. President Bush previously indicated he has some misgivings about the ADAAA, but given the broad bipartisan support that carried the bill through Congress, he is expected to sign it into law. (Keep in mind, it was George H.W. Bush that signed the original ADA.)
Assuming it becomes law, the ADAAA will greatly broaden the scope of the ADA. Some highlights of the ADAAA:
- Reverses several Supreme Court decisions that have seemingly narrowed the coverage of the ADA, restoring what the drafters perceive to be the original Congressional intent
- Broadens the definition of disability, including what it means to be “substantially limited in a major life activity
- Clarifies that accommodations are not be required if an individual is merely "regarded as” having a disability
- Prohibits the consideration of mitigating measures such as medication, prosthetics, and assistive technology, in determining whether an individual has a disability
- Provides coverage to people who experience discrimination based on a perception of impairment regardless of whether the individual experiences disability
The World of Work will let you know as soon as we receive word on what the White House intends to do. Stay tuned!
ADAAA Update: Senate Approves ADA Amendments Act
The U.S. Senate yesterday approved the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) by unanimous consent, making enactment of the ADAAA likely. As the World of Work previously reported, the ADAAA would overturn several U.S. Supreme Court decisions that many critics claim have too narrowly interpreted the Americans with Disabilities Act's coverage. To read the Senate version of the ADAAA, click here.
The ADAAA passed the House of Representatives in June by a 402-17 vote. There are minor differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, and the House is expected to adopt the Senate version on September 17. After that, it's on to President Bush to sign the bill, which he is expected to do. Keep watching the World of Work for further updates.
