Legislation introduced in February would have created a protected class of workers, including retail workers, and allowed those protected workers to recover damages if assaulted while performing their official job duties.

HB202 by Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, would have created “a protected class of workers and independent contractors who have a private right of action if they are assaulted at their workplace while performing, directly or indirectly, their official job duties.”

The “protected class of workers” is a long list of occupations, including food servers, food truck workers, delivery drivers, pharmacy workers, healthcare workers and retail workers.

Current law typically does not hold an employer liable for the criminal acts of its employees, and if an employee is assaulted, the employee already has a right to sue the attacker.

While HB202 would not have explicitly created liability for employers, there was a concern that it could be construed to do so. The bill never received committee consideration.

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