Senate Bill No. 490
(By Senators Jenkins and Sharpe)
____________
[Introduced March 9, 2005; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §55-7-18A, relating
to providing employer immunity for disclosure of information
regarding former employees; and providing that information
provided is presumed to be in good faith.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §55-7-18A, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 7. ACTIONS FOR INJURIES.
§55-7-18A. Employer immunity from liability; disclosure of
information regarding former employees
.
(a) Any employer or his or her agent who discloses job-related
information about a former or current employee to a prospective
employer of the former or current employee is presumed to be acting
in good faith and, unless lack of good faith is shown by clear and
convincing evidence, is immune from civil liability for the disclosure or its consequences. For the purpose of this section,
the presumption of good faith is rebutted upon a showing that the
information disclosed by the former employer or his or her agent
was knowingly false, disclosed with reckless disregard for the
truth, deliberately misleading, was rendered with malicious purpose
of the former or current employee, or was disclosed in violation of
a nondisclosure agreement or applicable law.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide employer immunity
from civil liability for job related information disclosed
regarding former employees.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.