Request By:
Ms. Marta V. Pearson
Intake Specialist
Louisville & Jefferson County
Human Relations Commission
200 South 7th Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202Re: 706 Deferral Status
Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; John F. Zink, Assistant Attorney General
You have written to this office seeking an official Opinion of the Attorney General regarding whether there exists any conflict with the governing Kentucky statutes as applied to local human rights commissions and the obtaining, by the Louisville and Jefferson County Human Relations Commission (hereinafter referred to as "Commission"), of 706 deferral status. (See 45 Federal Register No. 99, May 20, 1980). Such deferral status would enable the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to defer its jurisdiction over employment discrimination complaints to the Commission.
The Commission is a duly organized local human rights commission pursuant to KRS 344.310. Pursuant to the aforementioned statute, the Commission is empowered to investigate and execute civil rights complaints based upon allegations of discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or age where contrary to the policies embodied in KRS Chapter 344 and the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (78 Stat. § 241). KRS 344.310(2).
As it is my understanding that the state Kentucky Commission on Human Rights has such deferral status, and, in particular, as such deferral status by your Commission would be consonant with the purposes of KRS 344.310 and the whole of KRS Chapter 344, the Office of the Attorney General is of the opinion that such 706 deferral status for the Commission would not conflict with state and/or local laws.