On October 1, 2014 Public Act 14-27 went into effect which revamped Connecticut’s provisional pardon law (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-130a). The revisions were based on the recommendations of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission and under this new bill: “a provisional pardon or certificate [of rehabilitation] creates a presumption of rehabilitation. The bill requires the state or an […]
Most of the time, when an employer terminates an employee, and that employee sues, a court will not let an employer introduce evidence uncovered after the decision to terminate. However an exception has been added due to a recent decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals where it was held that evidence that is uncovered after […]
State representatives out of the 95th and 93rd districts have proposed Senate Bill No. 263 which would extend the whistleblower protections afforded to employees who report violations of law and other abuses. Under the current law, Connecticut General Statutes § 31-51m, an employer may not penalize any employee because the employee reports a violation or suspected violation […]
Beginning January 1, 2015, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) will begin enforcing its new workplace reporting rules which requires quicker reporting of severe injuries within 24-hours and an employment fatality within 8-hours. The time to report begins when the employer learns of the injury and/or fatality. Under the new regulations, a severe injury […]
Connecticut employers need to re-evaluate whether they are covered by the Connecticut Paid Sick Leave Law based on changes to the statute. Broadly speaking, the law requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave to certain employees. Earlier this year, the legislature amended the law in […]
Teachers generally enjoy job protection which is much greater than all other public sector employees. Such laws have been much criticized in recent years as a result of the increased focus on student performance. Reports of “rubber rooms” in New York, where incompetent teachers were parked, have been much publicized and much maligned. Some states, […]
This is Part 6 in a 6-part series on Connecticut Employment Laws You Didn’t Know Existed. Connecticut’s electronic monitoring law requires public and private employers to give prior notice to employees if their activities will be electronically monitored. Electronic monitoring may take some unexpected forms. For example, your computer systems likely log all Internet activity by employees. This would […]
This is Part 5 in a 6-part series on Connecticut Employment Laws You Didn’t Know Existed. While not an “employment law” per se, Connecticut requires any private individual or company to take certain precautions to safeguard Social Security numbers and other private information. Violations of these laws are punishable by fines, civil penalties, and even imprisonment. Of course, a […]
While the concept is intuitive, a recent study has confirmed that teacher absenteeism has a direct and measurable impact on student learning. In a report entitled “Roll Call: The Importance of Teacher Attendance” the National Center on Teacher Quality found that teachers miss on average 11 out of 186 days of school; and one in […]
This is Part 4 in a 6-part series on Connecticut Employment Laws You Didn’t Know Existed. Have you issued discipline, fired an employee, or even given a written performance evaluation since October 1, 2013? If so, you most likely violated a new provision in Connecticut’s Personnel File statute, which applies to private-sector employers. The new provision requires […]
