(a) It shall be an unlawful discriminatory employment practice, except where based upon applicable national security regulations established by the United States:
(1) For any employer, because of a person being in a protected class, to discharge without just cause, to refuse to hire, or otherwise to discriminate against that person with respect to hiring, compensation, tenure, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, or any matter directly or indirectly related to employment.
(2) For an employment agency or personnel placement service, because of a person being in a protected class, to do any of the following:
A. Refuse or fail to accept, register, classify properly, or refer for employment, or otherwise discriminate against any person;
B. Comply with a request from an employer for referral of applicants for employment, if the request directly or indirectly indicates that the employer fails to comply with the provisions of this chapter.
(3) For any labor organization to do any of the following:
A. Limit or restrict its membership on the basis of a person being in a protected class;
B. Discriminate against, limit the employment opportunities of, or otherwise adversely affect the employment status, wages, hours, or employment conditions of any person as an employee because of a person being in a protected class.
(4) For any employer, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee controlling apprentice training programs to discriminate against any person because of that person being in a protected class, in admission to, or employment in, any program established to provide apprentice training.
(5) Except where based on a bona fide occupational qualification certified in advance by an agency of the state or federal government or a political subdivision, for any employer, employment agency, personnel placement service, or labor organization, prior to employment or admission to membership, to do any of the following:
A. Elicit or attempt to elicit any information concerning the protected class status of an applicant for employment or membership;
B. Use any form of application for employment, or personnel or membership blank, seeking to elicit information regarding a person's protected class status; provided an employer holding a contract containing a nondiscrimination clause with the government of the United States, or any department or agency of that government, may require an employee applicant for employment to furnish documentary proof of United States citizenship and may retain that proof in the employer's personnel records and may use photographic or fingerprint identification for security purposes;
C. Utilize in the recruitment or hiring of persons any employment agency, personnel placement service, training school or center, labor organization, or any other employee-referring source known to discriminate against persons because of their being in a protected class.
(6) For any employer to discriminate against an individual with a disability in any of the following ways:
A. By limiting, segregating, or classifying a job applicant or employee in a way that adversely affects the opportunities or status of such applicant or employee because of the disability of such applicant or employee.
B. By failing to make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual who is an applicant or employee, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business of the employer.
C. By denying employment opportunities to a job applicant or employee who is an otherwise qualified individual with a disability, on the basis of such disabled individual's use of a service animal, provided nothing in this chapter shall be construed to require any employer, as a reasonable accommodation, to provide a service animal to a disabled person.
(7) For any employer to discriminate against a woman affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions for any employment-related purposes, including receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, or to fail to treat a woman so affected the same as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work.
(8) For any employer to discriminate against an employee or potential employee on the basis of age in offering any job opening or in the discharge of an employee without just cause who is physically able to perform the duties and otherwise meets the established requirements of the job and laws pertaining to the relationship between employer and employee.
(9) For any employer, employment agency, or labor organization to discriminate against any person because that person has opposed any practice forbidden by this chapter, or because that person has made a complaint or assisted in any manner in any investigation or proceeding under this chapter.
(10) For any person, whether or not an employer, employment agency, or labor organization, to aid, incite, compel, coerce, or participate in the doing of any act declared to be an unlawful discriminatory practice by this chapter, or to obstruct or prevent any person from enforcing or complying with the provisions of this chapter, or to attempt directly or indirectly to commit any act declared by this chapter to be an unlawful discriminatory practice by this chapter.
(b) With regard to age, it shall not be an unlawful discriminatory practice and it shall not constitute a violation of this chapter for any employer, employment agency, joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship training programs, or labor organization to do any of the following:
(1) Establish bona fide employment qualifications reasonably related to the particular business or occupation that may include standards for skill, aptitude, physical capability, intelligence, education, maturation, and experience;
(2) Observe the terms of a bona fide seniority system or any bona fide employee benefit plan, including, but not limited to, a retirement, pension, or insurance plan, that is not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this section. However, no such employee benefit plan shall excuse the failure to hire any individual, and no such seniority system or employee benefit plan shall require or permit the involuntary retirement of any individual, because of the individual's age except as provided for in the "Age Discrimination in Employment Act Amendment of 1978", 29 U.S.C.A. 623, as amended by the "Age Discrimination in Employment Act Amendments of 1986," 29 U.S.C.A. 623, as amended, or as later amended.
(3) Retire an employee who has attained sixty-five (65) years of age who, for the two (2)-year period immediately before retirement, was employed in a bona fide executive or a high policymaking position, if the employee is entitled to an immediate nonforfeitable annual retirement benefit from a pension, profit-sharing, savings, or deferred compensation plan, or any combination of those plans of the employer of the employee, which equals, in the aggregate, at least forty-four thousand dollars ($44,000), in accordance with the conditions of the "Age Discrimination in Employment Act Amendment of 1978", 29 U.S.C.A. 631, as amended by the "Age Discrimination in Employment Act Amendments of 1986", 29 U.S.C.A. 631, as amended, or as later amended;
(4) Observe the terms of any bona fide apprenticeship program if the program is registered with the Ohio Apprenticeship Council pursuant to R.C. §§ 4139.01 to 4139.06 and is approved by the federal committee on apprenticeship of the United States Department of Labor.
(c) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit any of the following:
(1) The designation of uniform age the attainment of which is necessary for public employees to receive pension or other retirement benefits pursuant to R.C. Chapter 145, 742, 3307, 3309, or 5505;
(2) The establishment of maximum age requirements for original appointment to a police department or fire department pursuant to R.C. §§ 124.41 and 124.42;
(3) Any establishment of a maximum age not in conflict with federal law that may be established by a municipal charter, municipal ordinance, or resolution of a board of township trustees for original appointment as a police officer or firefighter;
(4) Any establishment of a mandatory retirement provision not in conflict with federal law, a municipal charter, municipal ordinance, or resolution of a board of township trustees pertaining to police officers and firefighters.
(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a person with a disability to be employed or trained under circumstances that would significantly increase the occupational hazards affecting either the person with a disability, other employees, the general public, or the facilities in which the work is to be performed, or to require the employment or training of a person with a disability in a job that requires the person with a disability routinely to undertake any task, the performance of which is substantially and inherently impaired by the person's disability.
(e) Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit an employer, employment agency, personnel placement service, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee from doing any of the following:
(1) Adopting or administering reasonable policies or procedures, including, but not limited to, testing for the illegal use of any controlled substance, that are designed to ensure that an individual no longer is engaging in the illegal use of any controlled substance. For purposes of this chapter, a test to determine the illegal use of any controlled substance does not include a medical examination;
(2) Prohibiting the illegal use of controlled substances and the use of alcohol at the workplace by employees;
(3) Requiring that employees not be under the influence of alcohol or not be engaged in the illegal use of any controlled substance at the workplace;
(4) Requiring that employees behave in conformance with the requirements established under "The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988", 41 U.S.C.A. 701, as amended;
(5) Holding an employee who engages in the illegal use of any controlled substance or who is an alcoholic to the same qualification standards for employment or job performance, and the same behavior, to which the employer, employment agency, personnel placement service, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee holds other employees, even if any unsatisfactory performance or behavior is related to an employee's illegal use of a controlled substance or alcoholism;
(6) Exercising other authority recognized in the "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990", 42 U.S.C.A. 12101, as amended, including, but not limited to, requiring employees to comply with any applicable federal standards.
(f) This section does not apply to any religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society with respect to the employment of an individual of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on by that religious corporation, association, educational institution, or society of its activities.
(g) Whoever violates this section is guilty of an unlawful discriminatory employment practice.
(Ord. 45-2020. Passed 6-22-20; Ord. 27-2021. Passed 3-23-21.)