ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 117
(By Senators Ross, Anderson, Plymale and Dalton)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported January 26, 1994.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article eleven,
chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to expressly
exempting penitentiaries, correctional facilities, detention
centers and regional or county jails from definition of
places of public accommodation; and clarifying that rights
of employees and visitors remain unaffected.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article eleven, chapter five of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION.
§5-11-3. Definitions.
When used in this article:
(a) The term "person" means one or more individuals,
partnerships, associations, organizations, corporations, labororganizations, cooperatives, legal representatives, trustees,
trustees in bankruptcy, receivers and other organized groups of
persons;
(b) The term "commission" means the West Virginia human
rights commission;
(c) The term "director" means the executive director of the
commission;
(d) The term "employer" means the state, or any political
subdivision thereof, and any person employing twelve or more
persons within the state: Provided, That such terms shall not be
taken, understood or construed to include a private club;
(e) The term "employee" shall not include any individual
employed by his parents, spouse or child;
(f) The term "labor organization" includes any organization
which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, for collective
bargaining or for dealing with employers concerning grievances,
terms or conditions of employment or for other mutual aid or
protection in relation to employment;
(g) The term "employment agency" includes any person
undertaking with or without compensation to procure, recruit,
refer or place employees. A newspaper engaged in the activity of
advertising in the normal course of its business shall not be
deemed to be an employment agency;
(h) The term "discriminate" or "discrimination" means to
exclude from, or fail or refuse to extend to, a person equal
opportunities because of race, religion, color, national origin,ancestry, sex, age, blindness, handicap or familial status and
includes to separate or segregate;
(i) The term "unlawful discriminatory practices" includes
only those practices specified in section nine of this article;
(j) The term "place of public accommodations" means any
establishment or person, as defined herein, including the state,
or any political or civil subdivision thereof, which offers its
services, goods, facilities or accommodations to the general
public, but shall not include any accommodations which are in
their nature private nor shall it include any penitentiary
correctional facility, detention center, regional or county jail:
Provided, That nothing in this subsection shall be construed to
limit in any way rights available under the provisions of this
article to any employee of a penitentiary, correctional facility,
detention center, regional or county jail or any visitor to such
facility;
(k) The term "age" means the age of forty or above;
(l) For the purpose of this article, a person shall be
considered to be blind only if his central visual acuity does not
exceed twenty/two hundred in the better eye with correcting
lenses, or if his visual acuity is greater than twenty/two
hundred but is occasioned by a limitation in the fields of vision
such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an
angle no greater than twenty degrees; and
(m) The term "handicap" means a person who:
(1) Has a mental or physical impairment which substantiallylimits one or more of such person's major life activities. The
term "major life activities" includes functions such as caring
for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing,
hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working;
(2) Has a record of such impairment; or
(3) Is regarded as having such an impairment.
For the purposes of this article, this term does not include
persons whose current use of or addiction to alcohol or drugs
prevents such individual from performing the duties of the job in
question or whose employment, by reason of such current alcohol
or drug abuse, would constitute a direct threat to property or
the safety of others.