(C) Virginia Mercury This story was originally published by Virginia Mercury and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Three interesting bills: labor trafficking, city council salary caps and employee retaliation [1] ['Meghan Mcintyre', 'More From Author', '- February'] Date: 2024-02-16 Hundreds of bills are filed for General Assembly consideration each year. In this weekly series, the Mercury takes a look at a few of lawmakers’ 2024 proposals that might not otherwise make headlines during the whirlwind legislative session. House Bill 633: Establishing a state labor trafficking law This bill from Del. Mike Cherry, R-Colonial Heights, would give the state power to prosecute individuals who traffick other people or purchase them to provide labor against their will. The delegate told the House Courts of Justice Subcommittee that Virginia has no labor trafficking law because it only adopted federal sex trafficking statutes in 2012. However, he said, nearly 40% of all trafficking nationwide is labor trafficking. “Virginia is currently the only state in the nation that lacks a state labor trafficking law,” he said. The Human Trafficking Hotline says it has received nearly 6,400 notifications of human trafficking in Virginia since 2007. Cherry’s bill would give commonwealth’s attorneys the ability to bring labor trafficking cases to trial on their own, as opposed to the current process in which cases must be referred to federal prosecutors. Gabriel Mahoney with the University of Virginia School of State and Local Government said federal prosecutors “may or may not prosecute a case based on their available resources and typically take longer to bring a case to trial.” Cherry’s bill would “give local prosecutors the tools they need to bring labor traffickers to justice,” Mahoney continued. “It’ll help victims of labor trafficking by promoting swifter prosecution and public awareness and deter potential trafficking activity in the commonwealth.” The legislation passed the House unanimously. House Bill 356: Removing salary caps for city council members This bill from Del. Katrina Callsen, D-Charlottesville, would give local governments the ability to remove salary caps for mayors and city council members. No change in salary could go into effect until after the next scheduled general election of members. Current law sets salary caps based on city population. At the high end, mayors and council members of cities with a population of 250,000 or more can earn salaries of $30,000 and $28,000, respectively; at the low end, in cities with fewer than 14,999 people, they can earn $11,500 and $11,000. Callsen told a House Counties, Cities and Towns subcommittee last month that she sought to remove the caps because the same prohibitions do not apply to county boards of supervisors, and the caps have not been changed in over 25 years. Former Charlottesville City Council member Michael Payne told lawmakers some interested community members don’t run for city council “because the salary last set in 1998 with no adjustment for inflation over the past quarter century is too low to be able to handle the workload and variable hours while still providing for their families.” Del. Joseph McNamara, R-Roanoke, told the House Committee on Counties, Cities and Towns that he was supportive of the bill’s concept but worried it wouldn’t provide enough safeguards against unreasonable compensation. “I see nothing in the code that would prevent themselves from paying [a] $200,000” salary, he said. While Callsen said she is open to requiring a public notice hearing on salary caps, she said her “true intention is just to have this match what counties do — I’m not trying to create a runaway government.” The bill passed the House on a 64-31 vote. House Bill 770: Additional employee retaliation rights This legislation from Del. Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax, would add new rights under Virginia’s whistleblower protection law for non-state employees facing retaliation from their employer. Under the bill, the one-year statute of limitations for employees to file a lawsuit would start at the time of the employer’s final act of retaliation. Delaney told a House Labor and Commerce subcommittee last month that currently courts are interpreting the statute of limitations to start when a threat of retaliation occurs rather than the retaliatory action itself. “We can ensure that the clock for the statute of limitations starts at the actual occurrence of the illegal action and does not restrict anyone who is otherwise qualified for this relief,” she said. The bill would also clarify that a court or jury may award restitution for damages. Under existing law, Delaney said, courts are finding that juries are not legally qualified to hear these cases, “which is out of step with the way that Virginia currently handles other similar matters.” Finally, the legislation would allow employees to receive three times the damages awarded by the court if the employer is found to have willfully violated the law. Virginia employment attorney Sarah Robb, who regularly advises clients on whistleblower retaliation claims, said the heightened damages would make a significant statement to employers that they “can’t ignore their responsibility to protect whistleblowers from retaliation.” Delaney said the provisions in her bill would clarify some discrepancies in her previous legislation, known as the whistleblower protection law, passed in 2020. This bill “creates a more fair system for employees facing unjust action from their employers,” Delaney said on the House floor this month. The legislation narrowly passed the house on a party-line vote with Republicans voting in opposition. [END] --- [1] Url: https://virginiamercury.com/2024/02/16/three-interesting-bills-labor-trafficking-city-council-salary-caps-and-employee-retaliation/ Published and (C) by Virginia Mercury Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/virginiamercury/