As I posted yesterday, the Connecticut General Assembly is back in session. The Labor & Public Employees Committee is busy holding hearings this week on various bills now pending before the General Assembly.

One batch of bills is up for consideration this afternoon. A second batch is up for a hearing this Thursday at 2:30 p.m.  The February 28th Hearing agenda can be found here.  The hearing is at 2:30 in Room 2D of the Legislative Office Building.  The main topics of the February 28th hearing  purport to be public employees and unemployment compensation.

Among the notable bills being considered:

  • Senate Bill 217 (Employers with 25+ employees would be required to provide up to 52 hours of paid sick leave to employees);
  • Senate Bill 38 (which would provide paid vacation time, sick leave and personal leave for Connecticut State’s attorneys);
  • Senate Bill 56 (which would create a task force to address misclassification of workers such as the distinctions between exempt/non-exempt or employee/independent contractor).

For employers, Senate Bill 217 is the one to watch.  Proposals for paid sick leave have been making the rounds in various states with only modest success thus far.  It’ll be interesting to see how far this bill actually gets this year.

We’ll look at some of these bills more in-depth over the upcoming weeks and months as debate on the bills begins.  But given the General Assembly is in a short session, it’s still an open question as to what will actually get passed this year.

I should also note that other committees also consider bills that look at the employer/employee relationship. For example, the Judiciary Committee has a bill (Senate Bill 328) that would increase jury duty pay and require employers to be more involved in the system.  As significant developments arise, I will try to keep tabs on them throughout the legislative session.