OCRC Refuses to Delay Proposed Pregnancy Leave

Despite our best efforts and strong opposition, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) continues to plow forward in the rule-making process through JCARR.  A special OCRC meeting was held this afternoon to discuss the Commissions desire to move forward with this rule at the JCARR hearing scheduled for Monday, December 3, 2007.  The OCRC voted 3 to 2 to move forward with the rule despite the concerns raised by the business community.  Therefore, this substantial change in Ohio law is supported by only three unelected members of the OCRC.  This change will become law if JCARR does not favorably recommend a motion to invalidate the proposed rule changes to the House and Senate on Monday.

Commission members voting to push the rule forward without further debate or consideration of the concerns raised by the business community include:

Barbara Sykes, Chair

Aaron Wheeler, Sr.

Leonard Hubert

Commission members voting to pull the rule from JCARR to continue working with interested parties include:

Grace Ramos

Rashmi Yajnik

Please continue to contact members of JCARR to voice concerns with this proposed rule.  While several members on JCARR agree with our legal and policy arguments, the rule may survive this process and go into effect unless it is challenged in the courts.  This legal challenge will need to be filed in a very short time frame.  Therefore, I would like to know your organizations level of interest in challenging this rule in court.  Im only asking if you believe a legal challenge should be coordinated and, if so, your level of interest partnering on to such an effort. 

Thank you for your time and attention to this request.  More information will be forthcoming.  Please respond to this e-mail as early as possible on Friday.

COLUMBUS Barbara Sykes announced Tuesday that she will resign as the chairman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in the wake of the heated controversy surrounding a proposed maternity leave requirement.

In a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland, who appointed her to the job but had withdrawn his support, Sykes said that "recently the important work of the Commission has been detracted by political back-and-forth over the Commission's decision not to delay implementation of the pregnancy leave rule.

"I offer my resignation, effective Dec. 31, 2007, in hopes of hastening resolution of the issue and allowing the Commission to return to the numerous other cases before them."

She and Strickland spoke by phone on Tuesday morning and "arrived at mutual agreement" that her resignation was the best action to take, said Keith Dailey, Strickland's spokesman.

Strickland did not ask for her resignation, Dailey said.

Release of the letter came just before Sykes was scheduled for a Senate confirmation hearing at which she would not have had Strickland's support.

The requirement called for Ohio companies with four or more employees to allow pregnant women up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if medically necessary.

Earlier Sykes rejected Strickland's request that the Civil Rights Commission delay moving ahead with the requirement so that business groups that oppose it would have time to fully understand it.

Instead the commission last week sent the proposed requirement to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. The committee, however, labeled as "inaccurate" the commission's analysis that the requirement would have no financial impact on school districts, counties, townships and municipal corporations. The requirement was sent back to the commission to be revised.