Governor Ron DeSantis has signed HB 7, nicknamed the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” which stands for “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.” The new law’s stated purpose is to protect individual freedoms and prevent discrimination in the workplace and in public schools. The measure expands an employer’s civil liability for discriminatory employment practices under the Florida Civil Rights Act if the employer endorses certain concepts in a “nonobjective manner” during training or other required activity that is a condition of employment.
The law is slated to go into effect on July 1, 2022, but its fate remains uncertain. A lawsuit already has been filed in the Northern District of Florida federal court challenging HB 7 on various grounds, including that it violates employers’ free speech rights.
HB 7 states that subjecting an employee to workplace training that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels the employee to believe” certain concepts constitutes unlawful discrimination.
The law expands Florida Statutes Section 760.10 of the Florida Civil Rights Act to provide that it is discrimination to subject a person, as a condition of employment, to training that endorses any of the following concepts:
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