Governor Ned Lamont is urging the Connecticut General Assembly to approve legislation he proposed for consideration this session that will expand and strengthen the state’s paid sick days statutes to ensure that more workers have the ability to take time off from work when they are sick or need to care for a sick family member without sacrificing a day’s wage or risk losing their employment. The proposal will also enact safeguards in these statutes for small businesses to ensure that the right to paid sick days is not being misused.
“Our current paid sick days laws include important protections for some workers, however there are broad categories of workers who are left unprotected,” Governor Lamont said. “If there’s anything we have learned from the recent outbreak of a viral pandemic, it’s that illness can spready quickly, and workers are sometimes left in a situation in which they have to choose between going to the workplace sick and risk spreading that illness to their coworkers and clients, or sacrificing a day’s wage and be unable to support themselves and their families. This proposal will modernize our paid sick days statutes and acknowledge the evolving landscape of work in a post-pandemic world.”
Under the governor’s proposal, these statutes would be modified by:
Requiring all employers to provide their employees with paid sick days, regardless of the number of employees who work for that employer. Under current statutes, only employers with more than 50 employees are required to provide paid sick days.
Expanding the definition of who qualifies as a family member when a worker wants to use their paid sick days to care for a loved one to include that worker’s parents and domestic partners. Under current statutes, workers are limited to using their paid sick days only to occasions when they are caring for themselves, their spouse, or their child.
Prohibiting employers from mandating the search for a replacement as a condition of a worker accessing their paid sick days.
Prohibiting employers from eliminating a worker’s accrued paid sick days in instances when an employer’s ownership has changed or because a worker’s jobsite has changed.
Enabling workers to use their paid sick days in certain instances related to the declaration of a public health emergency, such as when a public health authority has mandated the closure of a worksite or when a family member’s child care facility has been ordered closed due to a public health emergency.
Additionally, the governor is proposing to include protections for small businesses in these statutes by:
Clarifying that employers have the right to request reasonable documentation when an employee is using three or more consecutive paid sick days.
Affirming that employers have the authority to take disciplinary action in instances when paid sick days have been misused.
The governor’s proposal is Senate Bill 12, An Act Modernizing the Paid Sick Days Statutes. It recently received a public hearing in the Labor and Public Employees Committee and it is pending further legislative action.
