Bathroom access under review by Legislature

A Tuesday hearing of the Michigan Senate’s Commerce and Tourism Committee will be the first for Senate Bill 5046. It would require retail establishments to allow customers with certain medical conditions to use employee-only restrooms.

The concept for this bill grew out of a push by Michigan resident Jill Sklar. The Huntington Woods woman has Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation that makes her bowels move suddenly and urgently. She said she began fighting for this bill after she soiled her clothing when a store clerk refused to let her use the bathroom, saying it was for employees only.

Supporters of this bill say it is needed for those who suffer from medical conditions like Crohn’s as well as ulcerative colitis, cancer, certain injuries, birth defects, and bladder or bowel incontinence. Pregnancy is also cited as one very good reason for this law. Sklar says these individuals don’t enjoy the luxury of having time to hunt for a public restroom. Those who are pushing this law point out that more than 50,000 Michigan residents are in the position of needing access to bathrooms at very short notice wherever they go – whether it is a shopping mall, a small store or a restaurant. Many say they now just shop on line, shunning retailers without public restrooms.

Continued -Under the proposed law, customers would have to show a note from a doctor, written on official prescription paper.

While this seems simple, businesses cite reasons not to be required to allow customers in nonpublic areas. They say two employees would have to be present in the store, one to escort the customer, the other to stay on the sales floor

Some stores are concerned about security, saying inventory and sometimes cash are near or in the employees’ only restrooms

The Michigan Retailers Association supports the bill. The group’s spokesman, Eric Rule, testified in a House hearing that “It seemed the right thing to do, to get these people back into our stores.” But the Michigan Chamber of Commerce is on record opposing the bill. In a statement presented to lawmakers it calls the bill “unnecessary, impractical and likely to cause more problems than it would solve.”

A similar measure has already passed the House, but it was there for five years before it came to a vote. Republicans stalled the bill until Democrats took over the House in 2006. That is when Rep. Andy Meisner took up Sklar’s cause. The Detroit Democrat got the bill through the House last fall by a vote of 72 to 35.

The Senate version faces an uncertain future. It has stalled in committee in the past, and that may be its fate this time in the Republican-controlled body.

Republican Jason Allen of Traverse City is the chair of the committee that will hold the hearing. While he has not commented on the current legislation, he has said in the past, “Another mandate is something we haven’t wanted to address.”