General Assembly>Division of Legislative Services>Publications>Session Summaries>2003>Labor and Employment


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Labor and Employment

Passed

P HB1751

Payment of wages and salaries. Authorizes payments of wages or salaries by electronic funds transfer to be made into a trust account on which the employee is a named beneficiary, with consent of the employee.
Patron - Parrish

P HB2696

Occupational health and safety. Deletes obsolete language relating to the effect of 1972 legislation upon duties of the Department of Labor and Industry, the Commissioner of Labor and Industry, and the State Corporation Commission. The deleted provision refers to duties imposed upon the State Corporation Commission by sections of the Code that have either been repealed or do not pertain to the State Corporation Commission.
Patron - Woodrum

P SB989

Child labor; exemptions. Lowers the minimum age for referees of sporting events from 13 to 12 years of age.
Patron - Mims

Failed

F HB1887

Workplace privacy. Requires employers with 10 or more employees to notify employees prior to engaging in electronic monitoring. The bill provides limited restrictions on the power to engage in and the disclosure of material obtained through electronic monitoring. Employers are not required to give notice when they have reasonable grounds to believe that a particular employee is engaged in conduct that violates the law, the legal rights of the employer or the employer's employees, or creates a hostile workplace environment, and that electronic monitoring will produce evidence of this misconduct. The original version of this bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.
Patron - May

F HB2258

Employment records. Requires a current or former employer to provide employment information to a prospective law-enforcement employer. The current or former employer is afforded the same immunity from civil liability as provided under § 8.01-46.1, and is required to provide for the confidentiality of the information. The current or former employer may charge a reasonable fee for copying and furnishing the documents.
Patron - Watts

F HB2790

Blood-borne pathogen hazards in the workplace; needleless systems and engineered sharps injury protection. Requires the Safety and Health Codes Board to provide an emergency temporary standard, which must be followed by adoption of a permanent standard, that establishes protections for occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens and must include requirements for engineered sharps injury protection and needleless systems and may include other mechanisms for preventing sharps injuries and exposure prone incidents such as training and education, vaccination recommendations, strategic handling and placement of sharps containers, and use of personal protective equipment. "Engineered sharps injury protection" is defined as a physical attribute (i) built into a needle device used for withdrawing body fluids, accessing a vein or artery or administering medications or other fluids that effectively reduces the risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens by mechanisms, such as barriers, blunting, encapsulation, withdrawal, retraction, destruction or other effective protection; or (ii) built into any other type of needle device or into a nonneedle sharp that effectively reduces the risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens. "Needleless system" is defined as a device that does not utilize needles that may be used for (i) withdrawal of body fluids after venous or arterial access has been established; (ii) administration of medication or fluids; or (iii) any other procedure that includes a risk of exposure to blood or other body fluids and, thereby, the risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens. The State Health Commissioner is required to advise and provide technical aid to the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and to the Safety and Health Codes Board concerning occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens and the use of engineered sharps injury protection and needleless systems. This assistance must include a list of available needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury protection that can be developed from existing sources and must be made available to assist employers. Each employer having employees at risk for exposure to blood-borne pathogens through injury with sharps must (i) conduct product evaluations of needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and (ii) establish an evaluation committee, at least half of whom must be front-line health care workers. The product evaluations must include various devices such as I.V. catheters, I.V. access devices and I.V. connectors; vacuum-tube blood collection devices; blood-drawing devices such as phlebotomy needles and tube holders, butterfly-type devices, and syringes; syringes used for purposes other than blood drawing; suture needles; scalpel devices; and any other category of device having a sharps injury risk. The evaluation committee must represent all services and medical specialties in the facility and be charged with developing and revising as necessary a written exposure control plan that (i) identifies effective existing needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury protection, (ii) determines by means of objective product evaluation criteria when use of such devices could jeopardize patient or employee safety and is not indicated for specific medical procedures, and (iii) includes a procedure for maintaining a sharps injury record with entries for incident dates and times, type and brand of the involved sharp and whether the sharp had engineered sharps injury protection and the status of such engineered sharps injury protection at the time of the incident; a detailed description of the incident that includes the injured employee's position, the location in the facility in which the incident occurred, the relevant procedure, the anatomical location of the employee's injury, and an analysis of how the incident could have been prevented. The Safety and Health Codes Board is required to promulgate emergency regulations to implement this provision, i.e., within 280 days of its enactment.
Patron - Brink

F SB908

Occupational health and safety; mold. Creates a statutory scheme for identification and remediation of mold in occupational buildings, similar to the current statutory scheme for asbestos remediation. The Safety and Health Codes Board is charged with developing regulations that determine a permissible exposure to mold that does not violate the safety and health of employees, and ensure the proper remediation of mold in occupational buildings. The Commissioner of Labor and Industry is authorized to receive complaints about mold, conduct inspections of buildings, investigate any complaints, hold hearings or institute legal proceedings to enforce the regulations. Building owners in violation of Board regulations may be guilty of a misdemeanor, charged with a fine of up to $1,000 per violation, and subject to a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per violation.
Patron - Miller, Y.B.

F SB1006

Virginia Whistleblower Act. Creates a statutory claim for employment discrimination against an employer who takes adverse action against an employee who refuses to engage in a criminal act or other act in violation of state law, or cooperates with a public agency conducting an investigation of an alleged violation of state law by the employer. The employee may not bring a claim unless he first discloses his concern to a supervisor and the supervisor has the opportunity to correct the problem. The court may order injunctive relief, reinstatement of the employee, or compensation for lost wages. The prevailing party may be entitled to reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. The Act does not apply to employees who have a written contract of employment or collective bargaining. The Act overturns the Supreme Court decision of Bowman v. State Bank of Keysville, and abrogates any common law rights or remedies for wrongful discharge.
Patron - Mims

F SB1289

Workplace privacy. Requires employers with 10 or more employees to notify employees prior to engaging in electronic monitoring. The bill provides limited restrictions on the power to engage in and the disclosure of material obtained through electronic monitoring. Employers are not required to give notice when they have reasonable grounds to believe that a particular employee is engaged in conduct that violates the law, the legal rights of the employer or the employer's employees, or creates a hostile workplace environment, and that electronic monitoring will produce evidence of this misconduct. The original version of this bill is a recommendation of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.
Patron - Ticer

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