Advocacy and Public Education

Education.
In Fiscal Year 1988, there were 77 workshops on civil rights law, racial sensitivity and tolerant behavior that were sponsored and conducted by ICRC staff around the state.

The ICRC also published three issues of its newsletter, the Communicator, containing articles on civil rights and discrimination issues. Besides workshops and newsletters, the ICRC also handled almost 700 employer/landlord calls--questions and requests for information. Publications were sent to 252 employers and landlords in response to these calls.

"An Open Letter to all Iowans" and the "Action Plan to Eliminate Racial Prejudice." In March 1987 the Commission adopted these documents in response to the growing number of bias-motivated hate/violence incidents. The "Open Letter" defines the problem of racial prejudice in Iowa and asks all Iowans to commit themselves to its elimination. The "Action Plan" details specific ways that Iowans can help.

These steps include the voluntary removal from store inventories of merchandise which could reasonably be identified as being racially offensive to some individuals. Another step is the establishment of Regional Councils on the Elimination of Racial Prejudice, comprised of volunteers who are committed to eliminating prejudice in their respective communities. There are to be three councils, serving the western, central and eastern areas of the state.

By the end of Fiscal Year 1988, these councils had been formed and each group was being trained to tackle the problem of prejudice on a local level, and to monitor incidents which could result in discrimination in their communities.

The Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965 (Changed Sections)

The following addition to the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965 was approved by the Seventy-Second General Assembly on June 5, 1987, and became effective July 1, 1987.

Section 601A.6

2. Employment policies relating to pregnancy and childbirth shall be governed by the following:

a. A written or unwritten employment policy or practice which excludes from employment applicants or employees because of the employee's pregnancy is a prima facie violation of this chapter.

b. Disabilities caused or contributed to by the employee's pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, and recovery therefrom are, for all job-related purposes, temporary disabilities and shall be treated as such under any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan available in connection with employment. Written and unwritten employment policies and practices involving matters such as the commencement and duration of leave, the availability of extensions, the accrual of seniority and other benefits and privileges, reinstatement, and payment under any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan, formal or informal, shall be applied to a disability due to the employee's pregnancy or giving birth, on the same terms and conditions as they are applied to other temporary disabilities.

c. Disabilities caused or contributed to by legal abortion and recovery therefrom are, for all job-related purposes, temporary disabilities and shall be treated as such under any temporary disability or sick leave plan available in connection with employment. Written and unwritten employment policies and practices involving matters such as the commencement and duration of leave, the availability of extensions, the accrual of seniority and other benefits and
privileges, reinstatement, and payment under any temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan, formal or informal, shall be applied to a disability due to legal abortion on the same terms and conditions as they are applied to other temporary disabilities. The employer may elect to exclude health insurance coverage for abortion from a plan provided by the employer, except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or where medical complications have arisen from an abortion.

d. An employer shall not terminate the employment of a person disabled by pregnancy because of the employee's pregnancy.

e. Where a leave is not available or a sufficient leave is not available under any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan available in connection with employment, the employer of the pregnant employee shall not refuse to grant to the employee who is disabled by the pregnancy a leave of absence if the leave of absence is for the period that the employee is disabled because of the employee's pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, or for eight weeks, whichever is less. However, the employee must provide timely notice of the period of leave requested and the employer must approve any change in the period requested before the change is effective. Before granting the leave of absence, the employer may require that the employee's disability resulting from pregnancy be verified by medical certification stating that the employee is not able to reasonably perform the duties of employment

(New subsection
2 and former subsections 2-5 renumbered 3-6.)

1988 Annual Report Main Page