Ohio Employment Discrimination Reform Bill Introduced

Senate Bill 268, sponsored by Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati), proposes to comprehensively overhaul Ohio’s employment discrimination statutes in a manner that would benefit employers and bring Ohio’s laws more in line with federal discrimination laws, but would continue to provide individuals avenues to assert state law discrimination violations.

This bill would bring Ohio’s statute in line with its federal counterpart by eliminating personal liability for managers and supervisors.

The bill also seeks to reduce the timeframe to file an employment discrimination lawsuit in court to one year and apply it to all discrimination claims.  Today, depending on the type of claim, individuals have between 180 days and six years to file.

OMA counsel Betsy Swift and Jill Bigler of Bricker & Eckler have highlighted the key provisions in this summary.