Lots of Unrest Over Slip-Up on ‘Day of Rest’ Law

At first the idea made sense to Tony Floyd, a courier and part-time employee of a magazine shop here. People should have the right to take Saturday or Sunday off to observe the Sabbath.

“That’s cool and all,” he said.

A few minutes later, it dawned on him. If stores had to close on Sundays, “people wouldn’t know what to do with themselves,” he said. “They wouldn’t be able to get their Starbucks. They wouldn’t be able to get their Sunday paper.”

Virginia’s business leaders and lawmakers have also figured out the repercussions of the state’s “day of rest” law, a statute accidentally revived by a well-meaning senator, and by a legislature and governor distracted by budget battles this spring.

The effect of the legislative erratum is to grant employees the right to take Sunday or Saturday off, or earn triple wages if they must work. A judge has temporarily blocked the law.

Discovered by a young labor lawyer, the mistake has caused a flurry of lobbying and embarrassed backpedaling, all expected to culminate Tuesday in a rare special session of the Legislature called solely to undo the deed.

“We make as many mistakes as Congress does, only we do it cheaper and faster,” said Delegate H. Morgan Griffith, the Republican majority leader of the part-time Virginia House of Delegates. “One year we outlawed antique cars, but we didn’t have to go into special session to fix that.”

Legislative leaders in both parties have agreed to make quick work of Tuesday’s session.

“It probably won’t take 45 minutes,” said state Sen. Frederick Quayle, a Republican who introduced the bill that caused the commotion. “Unless some people decide to chide me a little for getting us into this jam.”

The story goes back a few years, said Quayle, to a time when he stumbled upon a set of codes that barred businesses from being open on Sundays. Known as “blue laws,” the statutes were out of date and probably unconstitutional, he said.

This year, he decided to do something about it. “I thought it might be a good deed for me to try to clean up the code,” said Quayle.

His service was appreciated by his Senate colleagues, who unanimously passed his bill scrubbing the blue laws from the books.

The measure moved quickly through the House of Delegates, was passed around by lobbyists, interest groups and government agencies, and went to the desk of Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner without a hitch. He signed it. The state Legislature adjourned.

Unbeknownst to Quayle, the blue laws also contained exemptions to a separate Virginia statute that allowed employees to demand Saturday or Sunday off for religious reasons. The exemptions were repealed along with the blue laws, but the day of rest law was left standing. That meant it would take effect again.

A 34-year-old lawyer in his first year of practice found the glitch that the Legislature, the governor and the business establishment had missed. While doing some research, Buddy Omohundro noticed that the Legislature had repealed the exemptions to the day of rest law. Employers who refused to comply would be subject to fines and misdemeanor charges.

“My first instinct was that I must be missing something here,” Omohundro said. “But I dug deeper and deeper, and as I did my own sleuth work, I realized, ‘I’m right on this.’ ”

Omohundro’s firm alerted the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and quickly business leaders were up in arms, said chamber president Hugh Keogh. Hotel and restaurant owners said they’d be short-staffed during peak days. Food-processing plant managers in southern Virginia said they couldn’t afford the extra pay.

“As the workforce becomes more sophisticated, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries are using 24/7 work schedules,” Keogh said. The law would force them to “deal with artificialities,” he said, like scheduling around Sunday.

The thought of paying triple wages was another sticking point -- and perhaps antithetical to the spirit behind the bill.

“If you’re deeply religious, I wouldn’t think you could be bought off like that,” joked Jeff Davis, general manager at Station One Hotel in Virginia Beach.

By the time many Virginians learned of the new law, business groups had taken action. Last weekend, the day after Quayle’s bill went into effect, the chamber and other business groups won an injunction blocking enforcement of the law.

Under pressure, Warner called for the special session to restore the exemptions.

Lawmakers said it would be the first such session in memory called to fix a mistake. As penance, some lawmakers have said they will refuse their per diem pay that day.

Some Virginians said they see the whole episode as embarrassing, but others thought briefly about what might have been.

Photo shop manager Devan Burnett, a self-described atheist, said maybe he’d consider finding religion if it meant an extra day of rest.