?HB2 affects everyone,? said law professor Brian Clarke. Clark said if you face discrimination at work, you can no longer go straight to the courthouse and sue your employer.
?Trying to put it in normal human terms rather than in civil procedure terms ? it?s much easier to file a case in state court,? Clarke said.
HB2 delivered on what state lawmakers promised.
?It creates a state-wide non-discrimination ordinance and public accommodations which we?ve never had before, which is a perfectly good thing to do,? Clarke said. ?But it, of course, limits the protection categories to race, age, national origin, religion, color and biological sex to avoid any potential expansion of that in the courts.?
Clarke said the law goes beyond the stated goals.
?Then it deals with employment, so it deals with things that are utterly unrelated to LGBT rights, to bathroom usage, to public accommodations. And it deals specifically and directly with employment,? Clarke said.
The law addresses the minimum wage, and does not allow any local government to set a minimum wage.
?The legislature took that power expressly away, so forbade any local government from raising the minimum wage beyond what federal and state law require,? Clarke said.
Clarke teaches employment law at the Charlotte School of Law after being an employment lawyer for 11 years. He says one sentence in the law was very big.
The law states, ?This Article does not create, and shall not be construed to create or support, a statutory or common law private right of action, and no person may bring any civil action based on the public policy expressed herein.?
?In a very hidden way, it eliminated the ability for employees in North Carolina to file claims under state law for employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, color and age,? Clarke said, ?And that?s a right that North Carolina employees have had since 1982? and it?s gone.?
