Agency widens workplace probes

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 | 9:26 a.m.

The agency charged with enforcing state laws against discrimination in the workplace is putting more teeth in its work by using sanctions it has overlooked for decades, an official said.

The Nevada Equal Rights Commission -- the agency that answers employee complaints on discrimination -- Monday fined a company for the first time in its history to force it to surrender information key to an investigation.

"I fail to understand why this wasn't done in the past," said Lynda Parven, administrator for the agency since May 2001.

Because the investigation is still under way, the commission would not identify the company.

The $500 fine continued a yearlong trend, in which the agency is upping the ante in the effort to make employers cooperate.

During the past 12 months the agency has subpoenaed companies at least 15 times and even taken one to court. Details on those cases were also unavailable, since investigations are ongoing, but employers responded with the information requested in each of the cases.

Laws on the books since as far back as 1971 give the agency the right to use these tools -- but the laws were never applied until last year.

The agency's turnaround will affect the outcomes of these and future investigations, Parven said. For years many employers stonewalled the agency when asked for information, and the agency would conclude cases with a letter telling employees only that they had a right to sue.

"This would work against the complainant in many cases -- unless they had money for an attorney," Parven said.

"Now employers have to comply with the law."

Observers who work with labor law and civil rights see the commission's tough stance as a case of better late than never.

"I'm pleased to see the agency is beginning to use more effective resources to deal with employment discrimination in Nevada," said David Sanchez, chairman of the state advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

In a forum Sanchez held in March, claimants complained about a backlog in cases of at least six years. The agency's most recent records show that this has been reduced to four years.

Parven said the $500 fine is a good start, but she would like the agency to be able to do more.

"My first thought when I realized we could fine was, 'We should use this, but it should be higher,' " Parven said. "But the deputy attorney general said we should use it first before attempting to raise the amount, which would have to be done in the state Legislature."

The soonest that would happen would be 2005, as the deadline for agencies requesting bills for the 2003 Legislature, which convenes in February, has passed, she said.

Meanwhile, the agency will continue its new tack, dusting off old weapons in its arsenal.

"I think they've always had more power than they've used," said Robert Correales, assistant professor at William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"Using these three tools will help them get to the truth," he said.