Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh.
Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda. What are we talking about today?
DeMatteis: Well, we have good news for Connecticut employees. They picked up some new rights at work on October 1st of this year. What can you tell us?
Goodbaum: That’s right, Amanda. Connecticut employees have picked up four important rights as a result of an omnibus human resources bill that the Connecticut legislature passed in the late spring and that Governor Lamont signed.
The first has to do with salary ranges and job postings. So, there are a lot of complaints on Reddit threads and elsewhere on the internet where people are complaining that they get through three rounds of interviews only to find out that the job isn’t exactly what they thought. The salary range isn’t what they thought, or maybe the benefits are terrible.
Well, in Connecticut, the legislature has now fixed that. They’ve said for every employer, they need to post the wage range of the job, as well as a general description of the benefits and the compensation. Things like: Does it include health insurance? Does it include retirement benefits? And this applies to all employers, regardless of size.
Second, Connecticut has eliminated a significant loophole that allowed smaller employers to abuse promissory notes against their employees. So, often, employees are forced to sign promissory notes when they join their employer, and if they leave before a certain amount of time, they have to repay those promissory notes.
Employers say this allows them to recoup some of the cost of training. But the Connecticut General Assembly has said, for all employers, regardless of size, that is void as a matter of public policy. Employers are not allowed to use those promissory notes.
Third, employers have an obligation now, if their employees disclose to them that they have a disability, that they have to tell the employee that they are allowed to request an accommodation. And the employer has 10 days to notify the employee of the right to that accommodation.
And fourth, the Connecticut General Assembly has expanded the rights of working moms to have lactation breaks during the day. So, it used to be the case under the federal Pump for Nursing Mothers Act, and it still is the case, that nursing mothers have a right to take breaks and to a private place other than a bathroom stall in which to breastfeed or to express milk.
And the Connecticut General Assembly has said that those rights now apply to all employers, regardless of size.
So, four different things that the Connecticut General Assembly has done to protect employees in Connecticut, and great news for Connecticut employees starting October 1st.
DeMatteis: Thank you so much, Josh. Connecticut is widely regarded as an employee-friendly state with robust laws that protect workers, and this is just four more examples why.
Thank you so much for this information. Thank you so much for watching, and we’ll see you next time.