§ 28-5-17 - Conciliation of charges of unlawful practices.
SECTION 28-5-17
§ 28-5-17 Conciliation of charges ofunlawful practices. – (a) Upon the commission's own initiative or whenever an aggrieved individual oran organization chartered for the purpose of combating discrimination, racism,or of safeguarding civil liberties, or of promoting full, free, or equalemployment opportunities, that individual or organization being subsequentlyreferred to as the complainant, makes a charge to the commission that anyemployer, employment agency, labor organization, or person, subsequentlyreferred to as the respondent, has engaged or is engaging in unlawfulemployment practices and that the unlawful employment practices have occurred,have terminated, or have been applied to affect adversely the person aggrieved,whichever is later, within one year, the commission may initiate a preliminaryinvestigation.
(b) If the commission determines after the investigation thatit is probable that unlawful employment practices have been or are beingengaged in, it shall endeavor to eliminate the unlawful employment practices byinformal methods of conference, conciliation, and persuasion, including aconciliation agreement. The terms of the conciliation agreement shall includeprovisions requiring the respondent to refrain from the commission of unlawfuldiscriminatory practices in the future and may contain any further provisionsthat may be agreed upon by the investigating commissioner and the respondent,including a provision for the entry in superior court of a consent decreeembodying the terms of the conciliation agreement. Nothing said or done duringthese endeavors may be used as evidence in any subsequent proceeding.
(c) If, after an investigation and conference, the commissionis satisfied that any unlawful employment practice of the respondent will beeliminated, it may, with the consent of the complainant, treat the charge asconciliated, and entry of that disposition shall be made on the records of thecommission.
(d) The commission shall not enter a consent order orconciliation agreement settling claims of discrimination in an action orproceeding under this chapter unless the parties and their counsel attest thata waiver of all or substantially all attorneys' fees was not compelled as acondition of the settlement.