First Shift Leads Push for "Fairness in Human Rights Administration Amendment Act," Strengthening Worker Rights in D.C.
On December 17, 2024, in its last legislative hearing of 2024, the D.C. Council passed the Fairness in Human Rights Administration Amendment Act.
This law preserves and expands D.C. workers' rights to go to court when they are victims of discrimination, by:
Giving workers the option to file in court even after the Office of Human Rights has issued a determination in their case;
Clarifying the definition of sexual harassment; and
Extending the deadline for filing discrimination claims in court from one year to two years from the date of the employer's illegal action.
The legislation also clarifies that District government employees who have suffered discrimination have the right to seek compensatory damages and attorneys fees.
This law will allow many more workers to get their day in court and a shot at justice when they have been mistreated because of who they are.
I first became aware of this problem in our human rights procedures as the director of our local workers’ rights clinic. Workers who had suffered discrimination would come to our clinic, frustrated and seeking legal counsel after receiving a negative decision from the D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR).
When they told us their stories, we realized that without legal representation, many times there were one or more pieces of evidence that the worker hadn’t provided to OHR in the investigation, because they didn’t know the information was important to their case.
At the clinic, we had to give them the unfortunate news that even though all their evidence had not been presented, it was too late. After a worker received the letter from OHR saying there was “no probable cause,” they gave up their right to go to court and introduce new evidence.
So in 2017, First Shift began working with the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association to change the law, to allow aggrieved workers to go to court even after they go through the procedure at the Office of Human Rights. In particular, this helps workers in low-wage jobs, who are more likely to be navigating the administrative process without a lawyer. In the process of moving this initiative forward, we have also been able to improve other aspects of the human rights adjudication process, increasing the possibility that workers who are victims of discrimination will receive a fair remedy.
We appreciate our partnership with the Metropolitan Employment Lawyers Association over these many years to get this done. We also thank the National Women’s Law Center for lending their expertise and national perspective, and officials at the D.C. Office of Human Rights who were willing to work with us. Finally, we owe much gratitude to Councilmember Brianne Nadeau for getting us to the finish line!
Policy change takes time!
By L. Brown
