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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 5402
February Session, 2020
LCO No. 2165
Referred to Committee on VETERANS' AFFAIRS
Introduced by:
(VA)
AN ACT PROHIBITING RETALIATION OR DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
AN EMPLOYEE WHO IS A VETERAN FOR EXCEEDIN G PAID SICK
LEAVE.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2020) (a) No employer shall take 1
retaliatory personnel action or discriminate against an employee who is 2
a veteran, as defined in section 27-103 of the general statutes, because 3
such employee exceeds the number of paid sick leave hours provided 4
for in section 31-57s of the general statutes or contained in an employer's 5
established sick leave policy. No employer shall be required to pay any 6
excess sick leave hours used by such employee. 7
(b) Any employee aggrieved by a violation of this section may file a 8
complaint with the Labor Commissioner. Upon receipt of any such 9
complaint, the commissioner may hold a hearing. After the hearing, any 10
employer who is found by the commissioner, by a preponderance of the 11
evidence, to have violated the provisions of this section shall be liable to 12
the Labor Department for a civil penalty of five hundred dollars for each 13
violation. The commissioner may award the employee all appropriate 14 Raised Bill No. 5402
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relief, including (1) payment for used paid sick leave, (2) rehiring or 15
reinstatement to the employee's previous job, (3) payment of back 16
wages, and (4) reestablishment of employee benefits to which the 17
employee otherwise would have been eligible if the employee had not 18
been subject to such retaliatory personnel action or discriminated 19
against. Any party aggrieved by the decision of the commissioner may 20
appeal the decision to the Superior Court in accordance with the 21
provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes. 22
(c) The Labor Commissioner shall administer this section within 23
available appropriations. 24
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2020 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To protect employees who are veterans from retaliation or
discrimination by their employers for exceeding the number of paid sick
leave days.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]