The Mankato Free Press reports in House passes worker/wage lawsuit bills:
Local members of Congress voted with their parties on two bills this week that would give workers more power to sue their employers in wage discrimination cases.
In one other vote on disclosure of donations to presidential libraries, local members of Congress agreed.
Voting 247 for and 151 against, the House on Friday sent the Senate a bill (HR 11) giving plaintiffs greater standing to file suits alleging pay discrimination. The bill would permit claims to be filed within 180 days of the latest infraction. This would nullify a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., which requires pay-bias suits to be filed within 180 days of the first infraction.
Representatives Tim Walz, D-1st District, and Collin Peterson, D-7th District, voted in favor of the bill. Rep. John Kline, R-2nd District, voted against the bill.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said: “Fathers of daughters know their daughters are capable of doing anything they set out to do, and the value placed on them in the workplace should be the same value that is placed on” male co-workers. . . .
. . .In another vote, the
House passed a bill 256-163 (HR 12) to strengthen the federal law that
bans pay discrimination based on gender. The bill empowers women
alleging pay bias to sue for recovery of back pay and receive punitive
and compensatory damages, bans employer retaliation against those who
share salary data with co-workers, and establishes a grant program to
teach negotiating skills to girls and women. . . . . . . .John Kline, R-2nd District, called the bill
“yet another attempt to harm our nation’s businesses by limiting their
ability to make decisions based on the merits of their individual
employees.” Democrats Walz and Peterson voted in favor of the bill. Republican Kline voted against the bill.
Did John Kline get his talking points from Stephen Colbert's writers? A discussion of the Lilly Ledbbetter legislation begins around 1:20 in. It's worth sitting through the ad:
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