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

It's that time of year in Connecticut's short legislative season when legislative proposals come fast and furious but only a few will make the cut.  One of the mechanisms used to separate out the contenders from the pretenders is the committee hearing process.  It is a process that allows proponents and opponents to have their say. 

At a hearing at the legislature today, the Labor & Public Employees Committee is scheduled to take up several bills.  They are: 

1. S.B. No. 169 -- AN ACT REQUIRING EMPLOYERS TO CITE A REASON FOR TERMINATION OF THEIR EMPLOYEES.
2. S.B. No. 239 AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONTINUATION OF DAY CARE SUBSIDIES TO UNEMPLOYED WORKERS.
3. S.B. No. 240 AN ACT CONCERNING THE E-VERIFY PROGRAM.
4. S.B. No. 241 AN ACT CONCERNING THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES AND PREQUALIFICATION AND EVALUATION OF CONTRACTORS.
5. S.B. No. 242 AN ACT CONCERNING THE RETENTION OF JOBS IN CONNECTICUT
6. S.B. No. 243 AN ACT CONCERNING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR THOSE PERSONS WHO BECOME DISABLED WHILE UNEMPLOYED.
7. S.B. No. 261 AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONNECTICUT JOB CORPS TASK FORCE.
8. H.B. No. 5058 AN ACT CONCERNING THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE FOR CERTAIN STATE EMPLOYEES.
9. H.B. No. 5195 AN ACT CONCERNING THE REHIRING OF RETIRED STATE EMPLOYEES
10.  H.B. No. 5203 AN ACT CONCERNING STATE SERVICE RETIREMENT CREDIT AND TEACHERS' RETIREMENT CREDIT
11. H.B. No. 5206 AN ACT PROVIDING AN INDIVIDUAL THE RIGHT TO BRING A DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICE ACTION IN SUPERIOR COURT RATHER THAN THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES.
12. H.B. No. 5284 AN ACT CONCERNING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS AND DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES.
13. H.B. No. 5285 AN ACT CONCERNING STATE EMPLOYEES AND VIOLENCE AND BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE.
14. H.B. No. 5299 AN ACT CONCERNING THE STREAMLINING OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION APPEALS PROCESS.

Several, such as the bullying in the workplace proposal have been brought up before but with little enthusiasm.

As discussed last month, however, the proposal to circumvent the CHRO process merits the closest look because it would radically change the way discrimination cases are handled.  Employers in particular need to keep close tabs on this because it would change the statute of limitations on such claims to a much broader standard.  The CHRO has indicated that it opposes the measure as it is drafted. 

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the Legislative Office Building, Room 1E. The hearings are open to the public and amazingly enough, if you'd like to speak on any proposal, you can simply sign your name up on a list there.

Another hearing is scheduled for this Thursday.  You can view the agenda here.

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Following up on my earlier post, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) announced this week his plans to introduce emergency legislation that will guarantee paid sick days for those who are infected by the H1N1 virus.

In a statement, Sen. Dodd indicated that this issue required immediate action:

“This isn’t just a workers’ rights issue – it’s a public health emergency. Families shouldn’t have to choose between staying healthy and making ends meet,” said Dodd. “But if staying home means you don’t get paid, that’s an impossibility, especially for families struggling to make ends meet in this tough economy.”

“Workers should have paid sick leave as a matter of basic fairness,” Dodd continued. “But now sick leave is a matter of keeping Americans safe from this pandemic – and from the next one, whatever it may be.”

The proposal is likely to mirror similar measures introduced in the House -- either on an emergency or regular basis -- by several Representatives including Connecticut's Rosa DeLauro who introduced the Healthy Families Act back in May. 

As a I said before, there are legitimate arguments both before and against paid sick leave bills in general.

But it seems a dangerous road to go down to single out the H1N1 flu as the need for emergency legislation on the subject.  After all, the mortality rate for adults for the swine flu appears to be no higher than for seasonal flu. There are also illnesses that are far more severe that would be left out of such a measure; why should we single out H1N1 -- particularly because we might be starting to plateau on the numbers of cases in this wave? 

The paid sick leave measure can and should be debated on its own merits; tying it to an illness only seems to make an important measure feel like a political move.

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Today is October 1st which means that it's  "New Law" Day -- not in the formal sense, but because it is the effective date of many new laws passed by the Connecticut General Assembly earlier this year. You can view a list of all the bills that are effective today here.

The most important, for employers, is a new law regarding personnel files and revisions to the state's equal pay act provisions. You can find my prior recap of the bill here.

But we're not quite through for the year.

As part of its special September budget session, various employment law-related provisions are getting put into the so-called implementer rules. And they're a little more expansive than you might think.

For example, House Bill 7005 (which has only passed the House so far) would create a new False Claims Act applicable to the medical assistance programs that the Department of Social Services (DSS) administers. This includes new whistleblowing protection for employees raising such claims. 

Still more bills are expected to be discussed and debated tomorrow that address employment law issues, including one that would create a new Office of Administrative Hearings (which would hear some CHRO discrimination claims).  Those bills have not yet been posted on the Connecticut General Assembly's website as of today. 

As this legislative year seemingly goes on and on, Yogi Berra's phrase holds true: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

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One of the great pleasures of writing a blog is the opportunity to interact with other labor and employment lawyers from not only Connecticut, but across the country as well.  Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I had two articles written by and forwarded to me by Robert B. Fitzpatrick, a well-recognized employment lawyer from the Washington, D.C. area. 

I've been reading Robert's work for many years -- long before starting this blog -- including his papers on settlements (which I'll leave for another post on another day).

Robert doesn't need a big firm to back him up, either. He's got the real-world  experience, some of which is summarized here:  

Robert is the principal in the law firm of Robert B. Fitzpatrick, PLLC in Washington, D.C. where he represents clients in employment law and employee benefits matters. Mr. Fitzpatrick has concentrated his practice in employment law disputes for over thirty-five years and has been described by the National Law Journal as being among the top employment lawyers in the country and by Washingtonian Magazine as "tops in employment law" in the Washington, D.C. area. He was also included in the 2006 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.

Robert will be speaking at the ALI-ABA Course of Study this weekend in Washington, DC.  I enjoyed them so much that I asked for his permission to reprint them here because I believe that you will find it helpful too.

• The first article summarizes new federal labor and employment legislation, including the ADA Amendments Act of 2008; the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008; the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008; the E-Verify Extension; the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007; and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). He also provides links to key sources on this (including this blog). 
• The second article discusses proposed federal employment and labor legislation, including the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, the Civil Rights Act of 2008, and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Both are excellent sources of information for the upcoming term and I thank Robert for sharing them.  Be sure to check out Robert's website as well which has a number of other helpful publications as well.

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