TITLE 34 LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

6A. Equal Employment, Persons with Disabilities, 34-6A-1 through 34-6A-6.

ARTICLE 2 MEMBERSHIP IN LABOR ORGANIZATIONS

34-6A-6. Actions against persons engaged in unfair employment practices; remedies, court costs, and attorneys' fees.

Any individual with disabilities who is aggrieved by an unfair employment practice against such individual may institute a civil action against the persons engaged in such prohibited conduct. Such action may be brought in any court of record in this state having jurisdiction over the defendant and shall be brought within 180 days after the alleged prohibited conduct occurred. However, no person shall be a party plaintiff to any such action unless such person gives his or her consent in writing and such consent is filed with the court in which the action is brought.
The court may grant as relief, as it deems appropriate, any permanent or temporary injunction, temporary restraining order, or other order, including but not limited to hiring, reinstatement, or upgrading of employees; admission or restoration of the aggrieved individual to union membership; admission to or participation in a guidance program, apprenticeship training program, on-the-job training program, or other occupational training or retraining program; and the utilization of training related criteria in the admission of individuals to such training programs and job related criteria for employment. The court may award to the plaintiff back pay. The court may award court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees to the prevailing party.

(Code 1933, § 66-506, enacted by Ga. L. 1981, p. 1803, § 2; Ga. L. 1995, p. 1302, § 4.)

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Application to claims under federal statute.

- Although the specific claim of alleged wrongful termination for being HIV positive was one of employment discrimination to which O.C.G.A. § 34-6A-6(a) would have applied, the federal characterization of claims brought under 29 U.S.C. § 794 as "injuries to the person" makes O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, the statute of limitations for personal injury, the most analogous. Henrickson v. Sammons, 263 Ga. 331, 434 S.E.2d 51 (1993).

Action filed more than 180 days after firing untimely.

- Employee's filing of an action to recover damages for being terminated as a result of a handicap was untimely because it was not filed within 180 days of the date the employee was given oral notice of the employee's termination although the written notice was not received by mail until later. Humphreys v. Riverside Mfg. Co., 169 Ga. App. 18, 311 S.E.2d 223 (1983).

Employee's complaint filed 182 days after the refusal of the employer to accept the employee back to work following an AIDS related illness was properly dismissed because it was time barred. Beck v. Interstate Brands Corp., 953 F.2d 1275 (11th Cir. 1992).

Dismissed employee had no constitutional right to trial by jury on the employee's claim for back pay under O.C.G.A. Ch. 6A, T. 34. Smith v. Milliken & Co., 189 Ga. App. 897, 377 S.E.2d 916 (1989).

Failure to comply with company policy regarding absence from work.

- That handicapped employees may be expected to have more medically-related work absences than non-handicapped employees was no excuse for a handicapped employee's failure to have complied with a company policy requiring that all employees, as a condition of their continued employment, keep their employer currently informed as to an absence from work. Kut-Kwick Corp. v. Johnson, 189 Ga. App. 500, 376 S.E.2d 399 (1988), cert. denied, 189 Ga. App. 912, 376 S.E.2d 399 (1989).

Assignment of a visually impaired teacher to a school more distant than the one to which the teacher had been assigned previously did not violate O.C.G.A. Ch. 6A, T. 34, when the teacher produced no evidence to show the teacher was treated any differently from any able-bodied employee and the teacher testified to being unwilling to move from the teacher's apartment to one closer to the teacher's new school and that the teacher would not consider taking public transportation. Allen v. Bergman, 198 Ga. App. 57, 400 S.E.2d 347 (1990), cert. denied, 198 Ga. App. 897, 400 S.E.2d 347 (1991).

Cited in Veal v. Memorial Hosp., 894 F. Supp. 448 (M.D. Ga. 1995).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

C.J.S.

- 14A C.J.S., Civil Rights, § 722 et seq.

ALR.

- Award of front pay under state job discrimination statutes, 74 A.L.R.4th 746.

Damages and other relief under state legislation forbidding job discrimination on account of handicap, 78 A.L.R.4th 435.

Right to jury trial in action under state civil rights law, 12 A.L.R.5th 508.

Individual liability of supervisors, managers, officers or co-employees for discriminatory actions under state Civil Rights Act, 83 A.L.R.5th 1.

Right of prevailing plaintiffs to recover attorneys' fees under § 706(k) of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e5(k)), 132 A.L.R. Fed. 345.

Right of prevailing defendant to recover attorney's fees under § 706(k) of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e-5 (k)), 134 A.L.R. Fed 161.

Reductions to back pay awards under Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e et seq.), 135 A.L.R. Fed 1.

Period of time covered by back pay award under Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e et seq.), 137 A.L.R. Fed 1.

Allowance and rates of interest on backpay award under Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e et seq.), 138 A.L.R. Fed 1.

Factors or conditions in employment discrimination cases said to justify increase in attorney's fees awarded under § 706(k) of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e-5(k)), 140 A.L.R. Fed 301; 151 A.L.R. Fed. 77.

Availability of nominal damages in action under Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.S. § 2000e et seq.), 143 A.L.R. Fed. 269.

Availability of damages under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C.A. § 794) in actions against persons or entities other than federal government or agencies thereof, 145 A.L.R. Fed. 353.

Additions to back pay awards under Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq.), 146 A.L.R. Fed. 403.

Punitive damages in actions for violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.A. § 1981a; 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq.), 150 A.L.R. Fed. 601.

Award of compensatory damages under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981a for violation of Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964, 154 A.L.R. Fed. 347.

Propriety of treating separate entities as one for determining number of employees required by Title VII of Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e(b)) for action against "employer", 160 A.L.R. Fed. 441.