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General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6383
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 2809
Referred to Committee on LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Introduced by:
(LAB)
AN ACT CONCERNING CA LL CENTERS AND NOTIC E OF
CLOSURES.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2021) (a) For purposes of this 1
section: 2
(1) "Call center" means a facility or other operation through which 3
employees receive telephone calls or electronic communication for the 4
purpose of providing customer assistance or other customer service; 5
(2) "Employer" means a business entity that employs (A) fifty or more 6
employees, excluding part-time employees; or (B) fifty or more 7
employees that in the aggregate work at least fifteen hundred hours per 8
week, excluding overtime hours, for the purpose of staffing a call center; 9
(3) "Part-time employee" means an employee who is employed for an 10
average of fewer than twenty hours per week or who has been 11
employed for fewer than six of the twelve months preceding the date on 12
which notice is required under this section; and 13 Raised Bill No. 6383
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(4) "Commissioner" means the Labor Commissioner. 14
(b) A call center employer that intends to relocate a call center, or one 15
or more facilities or operating units within a call center comprising not 16
less than thirty per cent of the call center's or operating unit's total call 17
volume, when compared to the previous twelve-month average call 18
volume of operations or substantially similar operations, from this state 19
to another state or a foreign country shall notify the commissioner at 20
least one hundred days prior to such relocation. 21
(c) A call center employer that violates subsection (b) of this section 22
shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars for 23
each day of such violation, except that the commissioner may reduce 24
such amount for just cause shown. 25
(d) The commissioner shall compile an annual list of each call center 26
employer that relocated a call center, or one or more facilities or 27
operating units within a call center comprising at least thirty per cent of 28
the call center's total volume of operations, from this state to another 29
state or a foreign country. The commissioner shall make such list 30
available to the public and shall prominently display a link to such list 31
on the Labor Department's Internet web site. 32
(e) Except as provided in subsection (g) of this section and 33
notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes, a call center 34
employer on the annual list compiled under subsection (d) of this 35
section shall be ineligible for any direct or indirect state grants, state 36
guaranteed loans, state tax benefits or other state financial support for a 37
period of five years from the date such list is published. 38
(f) Except as provided in subsection (g) of this section and 39
notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes, a call center 40
employer on the annual list compiled under subsection (d) of this 41
section shall remit the unamortized value of any state grant, guaranteed 42
loan, state tax benefit or other state financial support such call center 43
employer has received in the five-year period prior to the date such call 44
center was placed on such list. Nothing in this section shall be deemed 45 Raised Bill No. 6383
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to prevent an employer from receiving any grant to provide training or 46
other employment assistance to individuals who are selected as being 47
in particular need of training or other employment assistance due to the 48
transfer or relocation of the employer's call center, facility or operating 49
units. 50
(g) The commissioner, in consultation with the appropriate agency 51
providing a loan or grant, may waive the remittance requirement under 52
subsection (f) of this section if the employer demonstrates that such 53
requirement would: (1) Threaten state or national security, (2) result in 54
substantial job loss in this state, or (3) harm the environment. 55
(h) The department head of each state agency shall ensure that for all 56
new contracts or new agreements entered into on and after October 1, 57
2021, all state business-related call center and customer service work is 58
performed by state contractors or other agents or subcontractors entirely 59
within this state, except that, if any such contractor, other agent or 60
subcontractor performs work outside this state and adds customer 61
service employees who will perform work pursuant to such new 62
contracts or agreements, such new employees shall immediately be 63
employed within this state. Businesses subject to a contract or 64
agreement agreed to prior to October 1, 2021, with terms extending 65
beyond October 1, 2023, shall be subject to the provisions of this 66
subsection if the contract or agreement is renewed. 67
(i) No provision of this section shall be construed to permit 68
withholding or denial of payments, compensation or benefits under any 69
other provision of the general statutes, including, but not limited to, 70
state unemployment compensation, disability payments or worker 71
retraining or readjustment funds, to workers employed by employers 72
that relocate from this state to another state or a foreign country. 73
(j) Nothing in this section shall be construed as creating a private 74
cause of action against an employer who has violated, or is alleged to 75
have violated, any provision of this section. 76 Raised Bill No. 6383
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This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2021 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To discourage employers from closing call centers in this state.
[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.]