Editorial: New law will serve workers, businesses

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 8:32 a.m.

The Nevada Equal Rights Commission is one of the busier state agencies. It's receiving complaints of discrimination on the job at the rate of about 1,800 a year, and all of them require painstaking investigations.

Owing to a new state law taking effect Oct. 1, the agency will be able to prioritize the complaints rather than taking them in order. The law is patterned after federal rules that allow the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to move quickly in cases where there is enough evidence or witness testimony to quickly sustain or dismiss a complaint.

We support this new law and the Equal Rights Commission's plans for putting obviously resolvable complaints on a fast track. We also support the commission for its use this year, for the first time ever, of fines against companies that fail to cooperate. Finally, an Equal Rights Commission with teeth and timeliness.

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