Businesses that have not been making the .5 percent employee pay deduction for Connecticut’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program could be left paying the cost out of their own pocket, according to a March […]
Department of Labor
An agreement between the state of Connecticut and the Administrative and Residual Employees Union would allow 62 employees labeled as managers and unit directors at the Department of Labor, the Department of Banking and the […]
A bill that would determine prevailing wage rates for large building and highway construction based on “dominant collective bargaining agreements” will likely be voted on by the legislature during special session. Although much attention has […]
A former director of the Wage and Workplace Standards Unit in the Department of Labor reported that “a field investigator falsely reported time for years, but the department did not take action to investigate or […]
Connecticut Democrats have made implementing a paid family medical leave bill a top priority this session, and a committee bill is set to receive a public hearing before the Labor and Public Employees Committee today. […]
A new study from the Virginia-based Institute for Justice estimates Connecticut’s occupational licensing laws are costing the state 48,000 jobs.
Imagine a workplace in which you feel it necessary to video-record yourself making a trip to the bathroom in case you are confronted by colleagues; where employees allegedly hire private investigators to follow each other around; where petty personal disputes become matters of extensive internal investigations.
Connecticut’s apprenticeship program presents a great opportunity for young people like Jake, but constraints on the number of apprentices an employer can hire may limit that opportunity for many others.
An employee can voluntarily separate from their employer and still receive unemployment benefits if the cause of separation was due to, among other things, a “hostile work environment.” So what constitutes a hostile work environment and what does the Connecticut Department of Labor use to determine whether or not such an environment exists?
Legally, a hostile work environment must be “permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment,” according to precedent set by the decision Brittel v. Department of Correction.
Wendy Traub of Hemlock Directional Boring - a construction company that specializes in underground utility pipe installation, says small businesses like Hemlock simply do not have the time to commit to appeals when there is little chance of success - regardless of whether or not the employee quit, was fired or laid off.
“I would say 98 percent of the time - I don’t want to say it was a joke - but no matter what evidence we could present, the labor board said they are going to get it.”
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