DATE: Tuesday, November 4, 1997             TAG: 9711040008

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION: NO DAY IN COURT VIRGINIA HAS DENIED WORKERS THE ABILITY TO SEEK REDRESS IN STATE COURTS

Last Friday the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously ruled that workers in the commonwealth may not sue their employers even if they are fired because of race, religion, national origin, age, marital status, disability or sex.

It was a stunning decision to those unfamiliar with changes made by state legislators to Virginia's Human Rights Act two years ago. In last week's ruling, workers were told in no uncertain terms that Virginia is unconcerned with discrimination in the workplace.

Blame for the decision rests squarely with the General Assembly, not the Virginia Supreme Court. Its hands were tied. In 1995, Virginia lawmakers methodically set out to amend the Virginia Human Rights Acts in a way that would effectively strip workers of their right to sue employers for discrimination in state courts.

In the process, the General Assembly also stripped the Virginia Supreme Court of any power to protect workers from unscrupulous employers.

The move was in reaction to a 1994 case, Lockhart vs. Commonwealth College. In that case, the highest court in Virginia recognized for the first time the right of employees to sue employers for race discrimination. The decision was expanded during the following months to include legal redress for workers who were victims of sex, and even pregnancy, discrimination.

The next year, lawmakers set about nullifying that decision and neutering the Human Rights Act by passing something referred to in the halls of the state capitol as the ``Lockhart amendment.''

By the time they were done, state lawmakers had guaranteed employers that even if they hurl racial epithets at their workers, fire women because they are pregnant or dismiss workers because of their religious beliefs, the state would stand idly by. The General Assembly firmly closed all state legal avenues for workers.

This may have pleased the more reactionary elements of Virginia's business community, but the voters do not elect state representatives to protect only those businessmen who donate heavily to their campaigns. State representatives owe their first allegiance to the ordinary people of Virginia - who are now left with little recourse if discriminated against on the job.

Judicial experts say the Lockhart amendment is masterful, leaving no legal loopholes for employees trying to get their day in court. Workers may still bring discrimination cases in federal court, but cases there are harder to win and monetary awards are limited by statute.

Virginia workers who believe they have been victims of discrimination should have the right to seek redress in state courts. Denying that right is not what members of the General Assembly were elected to do.

A first priority of the new General Assembly ought to be to undo the mischief done to the Human Rights Act in 1995. Virginia has an interest in seeing to it that workplaces are free from discrimination. At the minimum, the state should permit workers to have their day in court, where cases can be decided individually - on the merits.

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