Delaware General Assembly

CHAPTER 57

FORMERLY

HOUSE BILL NO. 4

AS AMENDED BY

HOUSE AMENDMENT NOS. 1 & 2

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

Section 1. Amend § 710, Title 19 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and insertions as shown by underline as follows and redesignating accordingly:

§ 710 Definitions.

For the purposes of this subchapter:

(6) "Domestic violence" means the same as defined in § 1041 of Title 10, verified by an official document, such as a court order, or by a reliable third-party professional, including a law-enforcement agency or officer, a domestic violence or domestic abuse service provider, or health care provider.

(22) "sexual offense" means the same as defined in § 761 of Title 11, verified by an official document, such as a court order, or by a reliable third-party professional, including a law-enforcement agency or officer, a domestic violence or domestic abuse service provider, or health care provider.

(24) "Stalking" means the same as in § 1312 of Title 11, verified by an official document, such as a court order, or by a reliable third party professional, including a law-enforcement agency or officer, a sexual assault service provider, or health care provider. It is the sexual assault or stalking victim's responsibility to provide the reliable statement from the reliable third party.

Section 2. Amend § 711, Title 19 of the Delaware Code by making deletions as shown by strike through and insertions as shown by underline and redesignating as follows:

§ 711 Unlawful employment practices; employer practices.

(h) It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to:

(1) Fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because the individual was the victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, or stalking; or

(2) Fail or refuse to make reasonable accommodations to the limitations known to the employer and related to domestic violence, a sexual offense, or stalking, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business of such employer. For purposes of this subsection, “reasonable accommodations” means making reasonable changes in the work place, including, but not limited to, reasonable changes in the schedules or duties of the job in question that would accommodate the person who was the victim of domestic violence, a sexual offense, or stalking, enabling such person to satisfactorily perform the essential duties of the job in question. Reasonable accommodations include allowing the individual to use accrued leave to address the domestic abuse, sexual offense, or stalking.

(i) (h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter:

(1) It shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to hire and employ employees, for an employment agency to classify or refer for employment any individual, for a labor organization to classify its membership or to classify or refer for employment any individual or for an employer, labor organization or joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining programs to admit or employ any individual in any such program on the basis of religion, genetic information, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin in those certain instances where religion, genetic information, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise; and

(2) It shall not be an unlawful employment practice for a school, college, university or other educational institution or institution of learning to hire and employ employees of a particular religion if such school, college, university or other educational institution or institution of learning is, in whole or in substantial part, owned, supported, controlled or managed by a particular religion or by a particular religious corporation, association or society or if the curriculum of such school, college, university or other educational institution or institution of learning is directed toward the propagation of a particular religion.

Section 3. This bill shall take effect 6 months after the date of its enactment.

Approved June 30, 2015