Opinion ID: 1285977
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: allowance of backpay

Text: 6. The hearing examiner awarded Shelby and Walker backpay to the time of their respective settlement agreements. The union and the railroad challenge the authority of the hearing examiner to award any backpay upon charges filed in 1966. Minn.St.1965, § 363.07, subd. 4, provided: Subd. 4. If the commission finds that the respondent has engaged in an unfair discriminatory practice, it shall make findings and shall issue an order directing the respondent to cease and desist from the unfair discriminatory practice found to exist and to take such other affirmative action as in the judgment of the commission will effectuate the purposes of this chapter and shall serve the order on the respondent personally, and the complainant by registered mail. [3] The statute was amended in 1969 by adding the provision that, in cases of discrimination in employment, the examiner may order the hiring, reinstatement, or upgrading of an employee with or without backpay. L.1969, c. 975, § 11, Minn.St. 363.071, subd. 2(a). The union and the railroad argue that this amendment indicates that there was no power to award backpay at the time the complaints were filed and thus the award is invalid. The state contends that the broad language of the 1965 statute authorized the award of backpay as an element of affirmative action and that the 1969 amendment merely was a clarification of the existing law. Alternatively, the state argues that the 1969 amendment should apply to these proceedings, since the hearing was not commenced until after the effective date of the statute, which the state asserts applies to all pending hearings. Generally, the adoption of an amendment raises a presumption that the legislature intended to make some change in the existing law. Western Union Tel. Co. v. Spaeth, 232 Minn. 128, 44 N.W.2d 440 (1950). However, we conclude that in this case the language of the amendatory statute was drafted to clarify rather than to enlarge the broad powers granted pursuant to the 1965 statute. Such an interpretation is consistent with the general purpose of Minn.St. c. 363, which is to place individuals discriminated against in the same position they would have been in had no discrimination occurred. Having disposed of this issue upon the above grounds, we need not consider the alternative proposal advanced by the State of Minnesota.