On June 26, 2008, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) proposed legislation that would extend the time limit workers have to file suit for employment discrimination in certain cases. The “Title VII Fairness Act” (S. 3209) would allow for an extension in cases where workers cannot reasonably be expected to have known they had been discriminated against.

The bill is a response to the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 127 S. Ct. 2162 (2007), which rejected the “paycheck rule” used by many courts and held that the time limit for filing a discrimination charge with the EEOC starts to run when the employer makes a discriminatory decision about the employee’s compensation, not each time the employee receives a paycheck affected by discrimination.

The proposed legislation would amend Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to extend the time limit workers have to file suit for employment discrimination in certain circumstances. The bill would clarify that the limitations period for bringing forward a claim is measured from the time of the discriminatory action (which is the current law) unless the employee can demonstrate that he or she did not know, and should not have known, about the discrimination. If the employee makes such a showing, the claim-filing period would begin to run when the worker had notice of the discrimination. The bill would build upon existing guidance from the EEOC on what type of information and circumstances indicated “notice” of discrimination to the employee.

Earlier this year, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) proposed legislation (S. 1483) aimed at the Ledbetter decision that would amend the same laws as Sen. Hutchinson’s bill. Sen. Kennedy’s bill would provide that the charge-filing periods would be triggered whenever an employee is affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision or practice. Republican lawmakers criticized this approach by suggesting it would put unnecessary strain on employers because claims could be filed several years after the discrimination was alleged to have occurred.

Sen. Hutchinson’s bill was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), the ranking Republican member of that committee, is a co-sponsor of the bill.