Connecticut’s Department of Labor has a “hostile work environment” – particularly in the Wage and Workplace Standards Division which investigates and levies fines against employers for violations of state labor laws. That’s according to Connecticut state auditors who released the latest audit of the department. Seven recommendations by the auditors ...
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.