The legislative session wrapped up last week and if you were on the lookout for lots of new employment law-related measures, you were likely to have been disappointed.

Despite serious changes to the state’s non-compete laws being discussed as well as expansion of the state’s paid leave laws having passed a committee, only a handful of measures have made it to the Governor’s desk.

My colleague Keegan Drenosky and I will provide a full recap of the bills in an upcoming post but if you can’t wait that long, we’ll be doing a presentation before the Fairfield County Bar Association tomorrow, June 13th starting at 12:30p. My colleague Tim Klimpl will serve as moderator.

You can still sign up to view the online portion here.

If you don’t want wait even THAT long, here’s a few highlights:

• In the state’s budget implementer, Connecticut’s standard wage law will be amended to require covered contractors to make certain notices. It also modifies the law’s enforcement provisions to allow for an independent cause of action by aggrieved employees. For those employers who must deal with a prevailing wage, these changes will be significant for employers to understand.
• Public Act 23-35 allows nearly all workers (not just first responders) who suffer certain tragic qualifying events to claim workers’ compensation benefits. A qualifying event may include viewing a deceased minor, witnessing the death of a person or an incident involving the death of a person, or viewing certain injuries of a person who subsequently dies.
• Senate Bill 228, which passed, now permits unionized employees who go out on strike to be eligible to get health benefits from the state’s health insurance exchange through a special enrollment period.