Retailers Want Proposed Discrimination Legislation Rejected

On Monday, the National Retailers' Federation (NRF) issued a statement requesting the members of the House of Representatives to reject a bill that would essentially eliminate the statute of limitations on employee complaint and discrimination lawsuits against employers.

The new legislation has been proposed by House Democrats. President Bush has already stated that he will veto the bill if it is passed by the House.

The introduction of the new legislation is being viewed by cynical political critics as just another example of the Democrats recklessly seeking to curry favor with the people who have some ax to grind while undermining the Republicans as part of their "vendetta", without regard to the best interests of the nation.

Other critics say that the Democrats are trying to position themselves to win the female vote in the 2008 Presidential elections by catering to a hot-button issue regarding equal treatment of women in the workplace.

California Democratic Congressman Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller has introduced the new bill in response to a Supreme Court ruling in May of this year, in which the final legal authority in the land voted 5-4 that the statue of limitations as currently observed for workplace discrimination charges should not be overturned for a case involving a former Goodyear employee Lilly Ledbetter.

Ledbetter has claimed that she was sexually discriminated against by receiving less pay than she would have received for the same job if she were a man. Ledbetter claims that the discrimination began anew with every paycheck she received because every one was discriminatory.

The Supreme Court denied that interpretation of the law, saying that the statute of limitations is 180 days from the date of the first incident, which is defined as being the same day that the employer first notifies the new employee of what the amount of pay will be.

The bill introduced by Congressman Miller would specify that the 180 day limitation statute begins anew with every discriminating paycheck received.