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.

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, labor organizations, cooperatives, legal representatives, trustees, trustees in bankruptcy, receivers and other organized groups ofpersons;
(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, or in the domestic service of any person;
(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 andincludes 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;
(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 substantially limits 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.

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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt all penal facilities from the definition of "places of public accommodation" for purposes of human rights commission jurisdiction.)