State lawmakers passed a series of bills last week tackling hiring, alcohol and civil rights.
State senators have gathered bipartisan support around a bill aimed at tackling age discrimination in job applications.
State Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos (D-Elsmere) is spearheading a new way to discourage employers from picking who continues in the application process based on their age, by outlawing employers from asking for anything that would reveal someone’s age in an initial application.
Normally one of the Senate’s more conservative figures, Sen. Colin Bonini (R-Dover), supports the Democrat’s bill against the concerns from other Republican colleagues.
Bonini says this law could have a major impact on businesses that use automated hiring systems to process applicants, now the norm among the country's largest businesses.
“I think this is a good thing; because I think we are — just the modern world we live in, we are closing out people that otherwise would be really good fits,” he said.
Bonini is confident many companies using these automated systems filter out applicants based on age, preventing their otherwise highly-qualified resumes from ever being seen by a human.
His colleagues opposing the bill were concerned about the impacts the law would have on small businesses, and could create more costs for business owners.
And a bill solidifying temporary rules regarding the alcohol take-out sales and drive-thru service were passed by the General Assembly last week.
The change reflects extremely broad support among Delawareans for the policies started during the pandemic, noting the convenience for restaurant-goers.
House lawmakers reconsidered the bill after senators made some changes, including a requirement that restaurants sell at least $10 worth of food with any purchase of alcohol through take-out or drive-thru service.
Another change ensures restaurants comply with the state food code when taking advantage of the expanded access to outdoor seating, another popular change lawmakers allowed during the pandemic.
The bill again passed with almost unanimous support from lawmakers, with State Rep. Paul Baumbach (D-Newark) choosing to abstain from the vote.
In the bill’s committee hearing, Baumbach had concerns about combining all these pandemic-era changes into one bill that makes them permanent, and said lawmakers should be considering the intricacies of them separately.
State lawmakers spent the past year enacting reforms designed to improve racial justice and discourage discrimination.
Another bill passed by House lawmakers last week would align the state with federal law, and criminalize the deprivation of civil rights.
Deputy Attorney General Mark Denny heads the Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust, which would be responsible for enforcing this law.
“The idea here was, again, as a safeguard against constitutional liberties and civil rights,” Denny said. “If there are entities that are systematically denying people, for example, the right to vote, freedom of speech, the right to peacefully assemble, that that would be something that would also be captured by this law.”
Denny says the law would cover both individuals and groups who deny someone their civil rights.
He adds the bill also includes terminology designed to ensure that only those who knowingly deprive someone of their civil rights would be suspect, ensuring those who are unaware wouldn’t be punished.
The bill received unanimous support in the House, and now heads to the Senate for approval.
Roman Battaglia is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
