This week's Missouri Mondays Call to Action is to call Governor Greitens office, (573)-751-3222, and ask that he veto both SB 43 & HB 1194! See below for talking points on each bill.

SB 43

SB 43 would remove protections for employees who experience discrimination and harassment, and it would reduce the ability of employees who have experienced such issues to sue their employers.

Indivisible MO-5 opposes SB 43 because:

• SB 43 would gut the Missouri’s Human Rights Act. This bill would put more of a burden on the victim to prove race or gender was the “motivating factor” instead of a “contributing factor” as the current law states. Ex. A group of employees are late once, only one employee(who is different or perceived different from the others in some way) is punished and fired. SB 43 would make it where you could be discriminated against and fired but the company claims it was because you were late once, this bill protects employers not employees.  

• It protects the wrongdoer by removing them from lawsuits.  Ex. 22 year old young woman is told she must perform sexual favors in order to keep her job by her male boss, quid pro quo harassment. Under SB 43 the individuals who discriminated or harassed are removed from any lawsuits, in this case the male boss is no longer a party to her lawsuit.  Allowing him to not have any record of his bad behavior and could be hired by another company, and they would never know he did such an act.

• The Senator who introduced the bill is currently being sued for alleged unlawful discrimination. It appears Sen. Gary Romine, R - Farmington is creating a law to help himself and all Missourians should be aware and concerned with this type of conflict of interest. We can not have our elected officials creating laws that directly benefit them.

• SB 43 weakens civil rights protections for Missouri workers. Sponsors claim the bill is needed to make Missouri more business friendly but SB 43 effectively allows employer discrimination without legal consequences turning back years of discrimination policy progress. We should be advancing the rights of Missourians by enacting protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation not rolling back the progress women and minorities have fought so hard for.  Proponents in the Senate appeared desperate to silence opposition by disgracefully turning off the microphone of NAACP-MO President Rod Chapel during debate.  

• Whistleblowers in Missouri would be more vulnerable to employer retaliation under SB 43.  Existing legal protections for whistleblowers, such as compensatory damages, would be abolished and replaced with fewer and weaker protections. Ex. Low-level employee making $400 a week reports a company's bad behavior, gets fired but finds another job 2 weeks later that employee under the current law employees can sue for lost wages, plus lost benefits, emotional distress and humiliation. However under SB 43 that employee would only be able to sue for lost wages plus “liquidated damages” which is capped at two times the lost wages, in this case $800 in lost wages and $1600 in liquidated damages for a total of $2,400. Is that enough to keep the company from violating laws next time? Or enough to be enough to be worth it for the employee to come forward? No.

HB 1194

HB 1194 will prohibit any city in Missouri from raising their minimum wage beyond state level. It will also take away the increase in Minimum Wage that St. Louis workers just received and are being paid.

Indivisible MO-5 opposes HB 1194 & 1193 because:

• Working people deserve a living wage.  If you work full time you should be able to support your family. At the state minimum wage, a forty hour work week yields only $308 before taxes.  More than one in twenty Missourians earns minimum wage or less.

• Local governments should be allowed to set a higher minimum wage. The cost of living varies across the state. Local governments should be allowed to decide if a higher minimum wage is right for their area.

• Any increase in wages for low income workers goes directly back into the economy. Working people spend the money they earn.

• Higher wages mean more tax revenue. It also means more money for discretionary spending and less government assistance.  

• Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the City of St. Louis’ wage increase under current law. The Supreme Court's ruling also overturned a trial court's decision that local minimum wages were prohibited by a pair of state laws setting the state minimum wage and limiting local ordinances.