FIRST REGULAR SESSION
94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES HARRIS (23) (Sponsor), LeVOTA, MEADOWS, ROORDA, DARROUGH, MEINERS, HODGES, WRIGHT-JONES, LAMPE AND WITTE (Co-sponsors).
Read 1st time February 26, 2007 and copies ordered printed.
D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To amend chapter 595, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to crime victim's right to take leave from employment to attend a criminal proceeding.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 595, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 595.207, to read as follows:
595.207. 1. As used in this section the following terms shall mean:
(1) "Covered employer", an employer who employs twenty-five or more persons in the state of Missouri for each working day during each of twenty or more calendar workweeks in the year in which an eligible employee takes leave to attend a criminal proceeding or in the year immediately preceding the year in which an eligible employee takes leave to attend a criminal proceeding;
(2) "Criminal proceeding", any proceeding which constitutes a part of a criminal action or occurs in court in connection with a prospective, pending, or completed criminal action;
(3) "Eligible employee", an employee who:
(a) Worked an average of more than twenty-five hours per week for a covered employer for at least one hundred eighty days immediately before the date the employee takes leave to attend a criminal proceeding; and
(b) Is a crime victim;
(4) "Undue hardship", a significant difficulty and expense to a business and includes consideration of the size of the covered employer's business and the covered employer's critical need for the employee.
2. Except as provided in subsection 3 of this section, a covered employer shall allow an eligible employee to take leave from employment to attend a criminal proceeding.
3. A covered employer may limit the amount of leave an eligible employee takes to attend a criminal proceeding if the employee's leave creates an undue hardship to the covered employer's business.
4. An eligible employee may notify the prosecuting or circuit attorney if taking leave to attend a criminal proceeding would cause undue hardship to the covered employer. The prosecuting or circuit attorney shall then notify the court. Upon notification by the prosecuting or circuit attorney the court shall take the schedule of the employee into consideration when scheduling a criminal proceeding.
5. An eligible employee shall give the covered employer:
(1) Reasonable notice of the employee's intention to take leave to attend a criminal proceeding; and
(2) Copies of any notices of scheduled criminal proceedings that the employee receives.
6. An eligible employee who is a victim of a crime shall not be dismissed or lose seniority or precedence while absent from employment under the provisions of this section.
7. It is unlawful for a covered employer or an agent of a covered employer to refuse to hire or employ, to bar or to discharge from employment, or to discriminate against an eligible employee in compensation or other terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because the eligible employee leaves work under the provisions of this section.
8. Covered employers shall keep confidential records regarding the eligible employee's leave under this section.
9. The prosecuting or circuit attorney shall inform the victim of the victim's rights under this section.
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