[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2311 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2311

To protect employees from retaliation in the workplace based on actions 
         taken to protest or try to improve working conditions.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 11, 2013

 Mr. Grayson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To protect employees from retaliation in the workplace based on actions 
         taken to protest or try to improve working conditions.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Worker Anti-Retaliation Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``employer'' means any entity that--
                    (A) employs employees; and
                    (B) whose annual gross revenue when added to the 
                annual gross revenue of its parent corporation and all 
                of its affiliated corporations exceeds $5,000,000 
                (exclusive of excise taxes at the retail level that are 
                separately stated);
            (2) the term ``employee'' means the common-law employees of 
        an employer;
            (3) the term ``parent corporation'' means any corporation 
        that owns or controls at least 51 percent of the voting shares 
        or other equity in the employer or an affiliated corporation; 
        and
            (4) the term ``affiliated corporation'' means any 
        corporation that shares a common parent corporation with an 
        employer.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON RETALIATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES.

    No employer, or any of its agents, may discharge or cause to be 
discharged or in any other manner discriminate against or take or 
threaten any adverse action, including changes in working assignments 
or conditions, any employee because the employee--
            (1) disseminated any message on the employer's property or 
        elsewhere, including through images, handbilling, picketing, 
        work stoppages, or gathering in groups to protest conflicts 
        with employers or to help persuade employers to change working 
        conditions, provided the employees do not have a representative 
        for the purpose of collective bargaining and the employee's 
        actions--
                    (A) were not taken during work time, except during 
                a lawful work stoppage;
                    (B) were peaceful; and
                    (C) did not destroy or damage property of the 
                employer or block entrances or exits of the employer or 
                otherwise impede the operations of the employer or the 
                work of other employees; or
            (2) planned any of the actions described in paragraph (1), 
        or assisted, encouraged, or supported another employee in 
        engaging in any such actions.

SEC. 4. PRESUMPTION OF UNLAWFUL ACTS.

    Any adverse action described in section 3, levied against an 
employee engaging in lawful actions within 90 days of the date of the 
employee's activity, shall be presumed unlawful and may only be 
rebutted by clear and convincing evidence proving adverse actions were 
taken for lawful reasons.

SEC. 5. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.

    (a) In General.--Any employee who believes that he or she has been 
discharged, disciplined, or otherwise discriminated against by an 
employer or any of its agents, whether the agent was operating within 
the scope of employment or without, in violation of section 3 (or any 
class of such employees) may bring an action in a court of competent 
jurisdiction against either the employer or the offending agent, in an 
individual capacity, for any of the following:
            (1) to enjoin such violation;
            (2) to recover any pay, backpay, damages, or other amounts 
        as settlement, plus an amount equal to three times the amount 
        of such backpay and damages and reasonable attorneys' fees and 
        expenses; or
            (3) to recover civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, per 
        affected employee, per day.
    (b) Limitation.--An action brought under subsection (a) may not be 
brought later than 3 years after the affected employee knows or should 
have known of the violation.

SEC. 6. RESTRICTION ON EMPLOYER OF AN EMPLOYEE FOUND TO BE IN VIOLATION 
              OF THIS ACT.

    No employer may provide for an employee's defense, backpay, 
damages, or settlement if that employee is found to be in violation of 
section 3 of this Act.

SEC. 7. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.

    This Act shall be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes. 
If any court finds any provision or application of this Act to be 
invalid or inoperative, in whole or in part, the remaining provisions 
of this Act shall remain in effect.

SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall take effect 30 days after the date of enactment of 
this Act.
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