Curbing workplace bullying among objectives of bills ordered up by legislative panel

Efforts to curb workplace bullying and expand a pharmacist’s ability to prescribe medications are among the bill draft requests sought by the state legislative interim Commerce and Labor Committee.

The proposals, which were approved by the committee last week, will be drafted as legislation for the 2027 Legislative Session, which starts Feb. 1.

State lawmakers decided to look into protection against hostile work environments after several employees spoke of harassment and abusive work experiences during public comment in February.

Terry Chi, the Nevada director for End Workplace Abuse, a national group advocating for state legislatures to pass a Workplace Psychological Safety Act, was among those who addressed lawmakers in February. 

Chi, a former Vegas PBS marketing director, filed a complaint in 2023 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Nevada Equal Rights Commission (NERC) alleging systemic racism, retaliation against a whistleblower and workplace mobbing, or collective abuse from managers to force people out of work.

During that time period, Chi said she took medical leave for high blood pressure, heart palpitations which she attributed to how she was treated at work. 

The experience, she told lawmakers, has led her to believe the state needs robust laws to protect employees. 

“Harassment is only illegal if it is motivated by a person’s protective class, which is race, religion, and sex,” Chi said at the time. “The kind of pervasive and severe harassment, gaslighting and abuse I experienced should never happen to anyone no matter whether you belong to a protected class or not. Toxic workplaces don’t just hurt feelings. They have measurable consequences.” 

The proposal approved by the committee this month would include seeking a definition for unlawful workplace bullying and establishing employer policies for identifying anti-retaliation protections and civil remedies.

Some lawmakers questioned how new legislation would differ from existing law. 

The measure, if adopted in 2025, would not be “based on any sort of protected class,” Sam Quast, senior principal deputy legislative counsel, said of the proposal. 

“It’s actually would be based on certain conduct that is unwelcome, degrading, and dehumanizing, but it’s not based on the particular characteristics of the person being bullied,” he said. 

Republican Assemblymembers P.K. O’Neill and Gregory Hafen opposed the measure being drafted as potential legislation in 2027. 

“I feel that even our legal interpretation still leaves it open to abuse and misunderstanding,” O’Neill said. “I think that it could be addressed better by individual contracts with the various businesses that are experiencing it, instead of throwing the wide net over all businesses in the state.”

State lawmakers last week also approved a bill draft request for a measure that would authorize pharmacists — instead of a physician — to prescribe and dispense medication in certain situations, including if a person is seeking treatment for a health condition that has been previously diagnosed.

Similar legislation, Assembly Bill 186, was proposed during the 2025 Legislative Session but died without getting a vote.

Nevada has a shortage of primary care physicians and would need an additional 2,400 physicians to meet the national average, members of the Nevada Pharmacy Alliance told the committee in June. 

The state does have more than 2,700 licensed pharmacists. 

Under the proposal approved by the committee, the legislation could authorize pharmacists to dispense a one-time refill of a prescription without the authorization of a physician if the drug was previously prescribed to the patient and losing access to the drug would threaten the health of the patient.

Pharmacists could also order laboratory tests necessary for any drug therapy.

Republican state Sen. John Steinbeck joined Hafen and O’Neill in voting against the proposal.