ADA Amendments Act of 2008
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990, courts, through their decisions interpreting the ADA, significantly restricted the scope of this important legislation by adopting a narrow view of who was considered “disabled” within the meaning of the ADA. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act into law, which had as its purpose to carry out the ADA’s objectives of providing “a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination” and “clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination” by reinstating a broad scope of protection to be available under the ADA.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said a person must file a claim of discrimination within 180 days of a company's initial decision to pay a worker less than it pays another worker doing the same job. The plaintiff in the case, Lilly Ledbetter, argued that she did not become aware of the pay discrepancy until near the end of her 19-year career at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Alabama. This important bill amends Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and modifies the operation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes.
Employee Free Choice Act
The NLRB election process first requires that at least 30 percent of workers sign authorization cards in favor of union representation. The Board then determines which workers are eligible for union representation and holds an election. After the Board has verified the results of the election, and if a majority of employees voted for union representation (barring any appeals from the employer), the union is certified. The Employee Free Choice Act (HR 800) (“EFCA”) requires employers to recognize a labor organization after a majority of an employer’s workers sign cards authorizing union representation. The legislation also establishes abbreviated time lines for first contract bargaining, mediation and interest arbitration, and it authorizes stronger penalties for discriminatory practices against workers when they act collectively to seek union representation.
A bipartisan coalition including Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Representatives George Miller (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) first proposed the EFCA in 2003, and they reintroduced the bill on April 19, 2005. The EFCA gained additional support after the elections in November 2006. The House passed the bill on March 1, 2007 with the support of 241 members, including 228 Democrats and13 Republicans. On June 26, 2007, however, the measure failed when the Senate was blocked from continuing to consider the House-passed bill when a vote to continue debate and consideration garnered only 51 rather than the 60 required. It is anticipated that the measure will be proposed again in 2009, and the bill has the support of President Obama.