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film, art, pet and tobacco sales, nonprofit charities,” among others.
Cheatham said most businessmen and women have been aware of the Blue Laws, and knew they were exempt. “Trouble is, as of tomorrow they are no longer exempt,” he said.
Bill Lightv, Gov. Mark Warner’s chief of staff, was reluctant to address the issue by phone on Friday. He said the governor was on vacation.
"It was an oversight in the drafting of the bill,” he said. “There is certainly the will to fix this. The question is what to do from an administrative point of view. We don’t have an answer yet.”
One suspects that when Virginia Sen. Frederick Quayle sponsored the bill he didn’t know it would stir up trouble. Several phone calls to his office went unreturned.
“This is bill No. 1 for the 2005 session,” Cheatham offered. “A poster child for a bill with unintended consequences.” He said lots of bills have technical problems and are fixed the next session, “but most are not significant.”
Attorney Ellen Marie Hess, with the Department of Labor and Industry in Richmond, fielded questions on Friday.
She said that as of July 1, any employee desiring and not giv«en Sunday off can file a complaint at the Department of Labor and Industry.
She recommended concerned employers “get legal advice concerning what they need to do concerning that statute.”
Hess said state and local governments are exempt from the law. Only private companies are affected by the Day of Rest provision. One person employing one person could be considered a private company, she said.
Asked how the law applied to “quasi-governmental” or other public-private hybrid companies, Hess said, "I would suggest they talk to their local attorney.” She said that she
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