March 23, 2005, Introduced by Reps. Meisner, Waters, David Law, Miller, Condino, Anderson, Gosselin, Gaffney, Vander Veen, Kahn, Adamini, Lemmons, III, Gleason, Sheltrown, Zelenko, Palmer, Hunter, Tobocman, Plakas, Nofs, Gillard, Baxter, Murphy, Palsrok, Clemente, Byrnes, Virgil Smith and Wenke and referred to the Committee on Commerce.
A bill to provide for restroom access for persons with certain
medical conditions; to provide immunity from liability for
permitting restroom access; and to prescribe penalties.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. As used in this act:
(a) "Customer" means an individual who is lawfully on the
premises of a retail establishment.
(b) "Doctor" means a licensed doctor of medicine or a licensed
doctor of osteopathic medicine and surgery.
(c) "Eligible medical condition" means Crohn's disease,
ulcerative colitis, any other inflammatory bowel disease, irritable
bowel syndrome, or any other medical condition that requires
immediate access to a toilet facility.
(d) "Retail establishment" means a place of business open to
the general public for the sale of goods or services.
Sec. 2. A retail establishment that has a toilet facility for
its employees shall allow a customer to use that facility during
normal business hours if all of the following are met:
(a) The customer requesting use of the employee toilet
facility suffers from an eligible medical condition or utilizes an
ostomy device.
(b) Two or more employees of the retail establishment are
working at the time the customer requests use of the employee
toilet facility.
(c) The customer provides the retail establishment with a copy
of a statement on a prescription form that indicates the customer
suffers from an eligible medical condition or utilizes an ostomy
device, signed by a doctor.
(d) The retail establishment does not normally make a restroom
available to the public.
(e) The employee toilet facility is not located in an area
where providing access would create an obvious health or safety
risk to the customer or an obvious security risk to the retail
establishment.
(f) A public restroom is not immediately accessible to the
customer.
Sec. 3. A retail establishment or an employee of a retail
establishment is not civilly liable for any injury to or death of a
customer allowed to use an employee toilet facility that is not a
public restroom, or to an individual other than an employee
accompanying the customer, unless all of the following are met:
(a) The retail establishment or the employee of the retail
establishment knew or should have known of the condition that
caused the injury or death, should have realized that the condition
involved an unreasonable risk of harm to a customer or other
individual, and should have expected that the customer or other
individual would not discover or realize the danger.
(b) The retail establishment or the employee of the retail
establishment failed to exercise reasonable care to make the
condition safe or to warn the customer or other individual of the
condition and the risk.
(c) The customer or other individual did not know or have
reason to know of the condition and the risk involved.
(d) The injury or death occurred in an area of the retail
establishment that is not accessible to the public.
Sec. 4. A retail establishment or an employee of a retail
establishment that violates section 2 is responsible for a state
civil infraction and may be ordered to pay a civil fine of not more
than $100.00.
Sec. 5. A retail establishment is not required to make any
physical changes to an employee toilet facility under this act.