SB 188 - Tell Governor Nixon It Is Bad for Missouri by Amy Coopman

ACTION ALERT:  MISSOURI EMPLOYEE RIGHTS ARE ON THE ROPES

You need to know the Missouri Senate has passed SB 188, a bill that hurts Missouri employees, and the House is going to vote soon.  The bill will likely end up on the Governor’s desk in a matter of days.

  

Please contact Governor Nixon and tell him why SB 188 is bad for Missouri. 

Governor Jay Nixon

216 State Capitol

P.O. Box 720

Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3222

Fax:  (573)751-1495

Email:  mogov@mail.mo.gov

SB 188 is BAD FOR MISSOURI.  WHY?

• This bill lets employers fire employees because of their religious beliefs, race, disability, age and sex.  Even worse, it gives the individual wrong-doer, including workplace sexual predators, a free pass to do it over and over, without accountability.

• The bill will let government agencies fire employees because of their age or race or sex, and pay no penalty, even though non-government employers have a penalty.  Now is not the time to make government less accountable. 

• SB 188 will make it possible for employers to hide a firing based on discrimination-- they will limit financial compensation to individuals and allow businesses to budget just how much discrimination they are willing to tolerate. 

• Under SB 188, an employee who brings a lawsuit in Missouri’s state court when he is fired due to a disability or age can find himself in front of a federal judge far from where he lives and works.  His Missouri dispute would wind up with a panel of Washington-appointed judges from outside Missouri, not accountable to Missouri voters.  Now is not the time to give Washington, DC more power over Missourians.

• The bill will threaten the religious liberty of Missouri citizens.  It significantly limits and weakens the “whistle-blower” protections that ensure that front line employees, people with the best information and knowledge about activities that this Legislature has said are illegal, can report illegal conduct by their employers without fear of losing their jobs and their ability to support their Missouri families.

• The bill lets employers have the upper hand more than ever by making it harder for employees to prove discrimination.

• SB 188 lets the individual boss or sexual harasser completely off the hook for discriminating and retaliating.  People should be accountable for their actions.

• The bill reverses the cases employees have won in court, making it easier for employers to win in the future.

• The bill will take cases out of Missouri state courts and give them to federal judges, sometimes far away from where you live and work.  Federal judges are appointed for life, and are not accountable to you like Missouri state court judges are.

• The bill lets the State of Missouri, and other governmental employers, purposely discriminate without any penalty, so they can repeatedly violate the law.

• The bill limits damages to those set by federal law 20 years ago.

• Most of the big businesses that support SB 188 aren’t even Missouri corporations, but are from Delaware or Ohio.  But they come to Missouri and ask for special treatment. This is not fair to small business in Missouri.

• Big businesses want an easier time firing Missouri workers, regardless of their age, religion, disability or gender.  Big business wants an easier time firing Missouri workers when they get “too old,” become disabled or get pregnant, or when a new boss doesn’t want people of color.  And this somehow helps create jobs?

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• Please take a couple minutes –today – to tell Governor Nixon that SB 188 is bad for Missouri. 

• How to Reach the Governor:

Governor Jay Nixon
216 State Capitol

P.O. Box 720
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Phone: (573) 751-3222

Fax:  (573)751-1495

Email:  mogov@mail.mo.gov