Connecticut Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Daniel Schwartz : Stamford, Hartford New Haven, CT

I realize this blog has been a little top heavy of late with legislative developments, but it always seems that a whole year's worth of developments occur within a 2-3 week period at the end of the short General Assembly session. With this year's session scheduled to close at the end of the day on Wednesday, the developments are fast and furious. The court updates will return in force soon.

In the meantime, here's the brief recap of some of the developments from the last day or two (more to follow if and when necessary):

15-Year-Old Workers

The House late today passed a bill today that reinstates the labor law permitting 15-year-olds to work in grocery stores and similar positions. I expect the Governor to sign it shortly.  I've covered the bill in detail, most recently yesterday.  The bill, S.B. 216, can be downloaded here.  It will become effective immediately upon signature by Gov. Rell.  It amends Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 31-23. 

Jury Duty

The provision on jury duty were amended in a few subtle ways through a bill passed by the House on Monday and expected to be signed by the Governor.

First, House Bill 5918 (download text here) allows persons who have served on jury duty in the last three years to request the opportunity to serve again even though they would otherwise be excused.  (It amends Conn. Gen. Stat. 51-217a(a) in doing so.) 

Second, the bill also provides additional protection to workers on jury duty.  Specifically, it makes it clear that "any juror-employee who has served eight hours of jury duty in any one day shall be deemed to have worked a legal day's work as that term is used in section 31-21...and an employer shall not require the juror employee to work in excess of eight hours." 

What does this mean? In practical terms, it means that jurors cannot be required to work while they are also serving full days on jury duty.  Employees can, it appears, voluntarily work -- after hours, for example -- since the language prohibits requiring the employee to do so.  Because Connecticut does not have a daily overtime rule, the employee may not even be entitled to overtime for simply working in addition to jury duty.

This jury duty law will go into effect on October 1, 2008, assuming Gov. Rell signs the bill.

Child Performer Protection

The House has yet to address House Bill 5677, which would institute a whole new range of protections for children who act (or "perform").  You can download the bill here, but the lack of action on the bill so far indicates that time may run out on this provision. 

Whistleblower Protection

S.B. 335, which expands the protection of state whistleblowers has yet to be considered by the House. I looked at Senate Bill 335 in an earlier post. 

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With just a few days to go, the list of pending bills in both the state Senate and House continues to grow. 

But it is worth updating readers on one uncontroversial employment law bill that passed the Senate over a month ago that remains pending. 

Specifically, Senate Bill 216 would renew a labor law that permitted 15-year-olds to work in grocery stores as baggers, shelf stockers and cashiers.  As readers will recall, this law expired last fall "apparently because lawmakers forgot to renew it."

The law has been on the books for 20 years, but had an automatic sunset provision in it that lawmakers overlooked when the session ended last year.

The new bill, which would also grant amnesty to those employers who have continued to employ 15-year-olds during the last six months or so, passed the Senate last month on the consent calendar and looked to have swift passage in the House. 

And perhaps it will pass in the closing days. But given the full agenda of the House, it would be a shame if the General Assembly overlooked this important law again.  House members would be wise to make sure this bill is put on the consent calendar again in the closing days.  It's passage will ensure valuable jobs for teenagers are open for years to come.

UPDATE 12 p.m.: The bill appears on the "Go List" for today, which is available here.  There are two amendments that may potentially be raised today regarding home-schooled teens and apprenticeships. While both topics are interesting, the bill ought to be passed in its original form; otherwise, it will need to be returned to the Senate for further consideration.

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The Associated Press is reporting this morning that the labor law that permitted 15-year-olds to work in grocery stores as baggers,  shelf stockers and cashiers, is no longer in effect, "apparently because lawmakers forgot to renew it."

According to the AP:

The 20-year-old law had to be renewed every five years, and lawmakers didn't do that last session, allowing it to expire on Oct. 1.

"New 15-year-olds will have to wait until we convene for the next session," said state Sen. Edith G. Prague, D-Columbia, the co-chair of the legislature's labor committee.

Those 15-year-olds who had working papers from their school guidance offices prior to Sept. 30, may still continue working in grocery stores, she said.

The idea that the government could simply "forget" to renew statutes, particularly where the legislature has set a sunset provision is astonishing and troubling. While the expiration of this statute won't effect a great majority of teens, it is still will hurt some smaller grocery stores who rely on these teenagers to fill gaps in their employment ranks and will hurt some teens looking for an early first job.

So what does the expired law actually state? It can be found at Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 31-23(b)(1). 

(b) (1) [A] minor who has reached the age of fifteen may be employed or permitted to work in any mercantile establishment, from September 30, 2002, to September 30, 2007, inclusive, as a bagger, cashier or stock clerk, provided such employment shall be:

(A) limited to periods of school vacation during which school is not in session for five consecutive days or more except that such minor employed in a retail food store may work on any Saturday during the year;
(B) for not more than forty hours in any week;
(C) for not more than eight hours in any day; and,
(D) between the hours of seven o'clock in the morning and seven o'clock in the evening, except that from July first to the first Monday in September in any year, any such minor may be employed until nine o'clock in the evening.

The article does not explain why the statute had a sunset provision to begin with, but here's hoping the legislature takes immediate steps to rectify their oversight.  In the future, one who hope that the legislature will task someone with keeping track of these sunset provisions.   Otherwise, just take out the sunset provisions and leave it to future legislatures to remove the rule if they don't like it.

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