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General Assembly CORRECTED COPY
Committee Bill No. 668
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 5612
Referred to Committee on LABOR AND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Introduced by:
(LAB)
AN ACT CONCERNING A FAIR WORK WEEK SCHE DULE.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2021) (a) As used in this section: 1
(1) "Employee" means any person (A) paid on an hourly basis, (B) not 2
exempt from the minimum wage and overtime compensation 3
requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the 4
regulations promulgated thereunder, as amended from time to time, 5
and (C) suffered or permitted to work by an employer in: 6
(i) Any occupation in the mercantile trade, which, for the purposes of 7
this clause, means the trade of wholesale or retail selling of groceries or 8
commodities and any operation incidental or supplemental thereto, 9
including, but not limited to, buying, delivering or maintaining such 10
groceries or commodities, and any office, stock or clerical work, except 11
repair and service employees having the major portion of their duties 12
unrelated to the mercantile trade; 13
(ii) A restaurant occupation, including any person engaged in the 14
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preparation and serving of food for human consumption or in any 15
operation incidental or supplemental thereto, whether the food is 16
served at or away from the point of preparation, or whether the 17
preparation and serving of food is the sole business of the employing 18
establishment or enterprise. A restaurant occupation includes, but is not 19
limited to, employees of restaurants, cafeterias, that portion of hotel 20
businesses involving the preparation and serving of food, commissaries, 21
fast food outlets, grills, coffee shops, luncheonettes, sandwich shops, 22
tearooms, nightclubs, cabarets, automats, caterers, frankfurter stands, 23
operators of food vending machines, and that portion of a business 24
involving the serving of food in department stores, drugstores, candy 25
stores, bakeries, pizzerias, delicatessens, places of amusement and 26
recreation, commercial and industrial establishments and social, 27
recreational, fraternal and professional clubs that either regularly or 28
intermittently serve food. A restaurant occupation does not include the 29
preparation and serving of food in a nonprofit educational, charitable or 30
religious organization where the food service is not regularly available 31
to the general public, or the preparation and serving of food in hospitals, 32
convalescent homes or homes for the elderly where the food service is 33
not regularly available to the general public and is incidental to the care 34
of the patient; 35
(iii) An occupation within a hotel, motel or resort with one of the 36
following broad or detailed occupation code numbers and titles, as 37
defined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics Standard Occupational 38
Classification system or any successor system: 35-3010 Bartenders; 35-39
9020 Dishwashers; 35-9030 Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge 40
and Coffee Shop; 37-2010 Building Cleaning Workers; 37-3010 Grounds 41
Maintenance Workers; 39-3030 Ushers, Lobby Attendants and Ticket 42
Takers; 39-6010 Baggage Porters, Bellhops and Concierges; 43-4080 43
Hotel, Motel and Resort Desk Clerks; 43-4170 Receptionists and 44
Information Clerks; or 45
(iv) Any occupation in long-term health care services, as defined both 46
(I) in the 2012 North American Industry Classification System under 47
code 623110 for nursing homes, and (II) under the Labor Department 48
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classification (T) 31-1012 for nursing aides, orderlies and attendants; 49
(2) "Employer" means (A) an employer, as defined in section 31-71a 50
of the general statutes, who employs not less than two hundred fifty 51
employees, (B) a franchisee, as defined in section 42-133e of the general 52
statutes, if the network of franchises employs not less than two hundred 53
fifty employees in aggregate, and (C) a nursing home, as defined in 54
section 19a-490 of the general statutes, if the nursing home (i) employs 55
not less than one hundred employees, or (ii) is controlled or operated by 56
a management company that employs not less than one hundred 57
employees in the aggregate; 58
(3) "Regular rate" has the same meaning as provided in section 31- 59
76b of the general statutes; 60
(4) "Scheduled work hours" means the hours an employee is 61
scheduled to work pursuant to a work schedule; 62
(5) "Shift" means the consecutive hours an employer schedules an 63
employee to work, or to be available to report to work at the request or 64
permission of the employer, except that a break of not more than one 65
hour shall not be considered an interruption of consecutive hours; 66
(6) "Work schedule" means a written notice of an employee's regular 67
and on-call hours, including specific start and end times for each shift, 68
during a consecutive seven-day period; and 69
(7) "Work schedule change" means any employer -initiated 70
modification to the employee's work schedule, including: (A) The 71
addition or reduction of hours; (B) cancellation of a work shift or portion 72
of a work shift; (C) a change in the date, time or location of a work shift; 73
or (D) scheduling the employee for an on-call work shift for which the 74
employee does not need to report to work. 75
(b) Upon hiring an employee, an employer shall (1) obtain a written 76
statement of the employee's desired number of weekly work hours, and 77
the days and times the employee is available to work, and (2) provide 78
the employee with a written estimate of the employee's work schedule. 79
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The employer shall notify the employee that the employee may modify 80
such written statement at any time and the employer shall revise the 81
written estimate of the employee's work schedule if there is a significant 82
change to such schedule due to changes in the employee's availability 83
or to the employer's business needs. Such written estimate shall not be 84
considered a contractual offer binding the employer and shall contain: 85
(A) The average number of work hours the employee can expect to work 86
each week; (B) the minimum and maximum numbers of work hours the 87
employee can expect to work each week; (C) the minimum length of 88
shifts that the employee can expect to work; and (D) the number of days, 89
the amount of time and the number of shifts that the employee can 90
expect to work, and days of the week and times or shifts on which the 91
employee will not be scheduled to work. An estimate made without a 92
basis in good faith shall be a violation of this subsection. An employer 93
is not in violation of any provision of this subsection when an 94
employee's average weekly work hours significantly exceed the number 95
provided in the written estimate if the employer makes every effort to 96
schedule the employee for the employee's desired number of weekly 97
work hours. 98
(c) Not later than the date of an employee's first shift, the employer 99
shall provide to the employee the employee's work schedule for the 100
period commencing on the date of the employee's first shift and ending 101
on the last date of the seven-day period covered by the work schedule 102
posted by the employer pursuant subsection (d) of this section. 103
Thereafter, the employer shall notify the employee of the employee's 104
work schedule in accordance with the provisions of subsection (d) of 105
this section. 106
(d) Not later than fourteen days prior to the first date of the seven-107
day period of any work schedule, an employer shall post the work 108
schedule in a conspicuous place that is readily accessible and visible to 109
all employees at the workplace and shall transmit such schedule to each 110
employee. Such transmission may be electronic if electronic means are 111
regularly used to communicate scheduling information to employees. 112
The work schedule shall identify all employees currently employed at 113
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the worksite, whether or not such employees are scheduled to work any 114
hours in the work schedule. 115
(e) An employer shall provide to each employee written notice of any 116
work schedule change as promptly as possible and prior to such change 117
taking effect. Not later than twenty-four hours after making a change to 118
the work schedule, the employer shall revise the posted work schedule 119
to reflect the change. An employee may decline to work any hours not 120
included in the posted work schedule. If the employee voluntarily 121
consents to work such hours, such consent shall be recorded in writing. 122
(f) (1) Except as provided in subdivision (2) of this subsection, an 123
employer shall pay an employee (A) one hour of pay at the employee's 124
regular rate for each instance that the employer, less than fourteen days 125
prior to the commencement of scheduled work hours, adds one or more 126
hours of work or changes the date, time or location of a work shift 127
without a reduction of hours, and (B) one-half of the employee's regular 128
rate for any scheduled work hours the employee does not work due to 129
the employer cancelling or reducing the employee's scheduled work 130
hours: (i) After the employee reports to work such scheduled work 131
hours, or (ii) less than fourteen days prior to the commencement of such 132
scheduled work hours. 133
(2) The provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection shall not apply 134
if the employee's scheduled work hours are changed due to: (A) The 135
employee's written request, including, but not limited to, a request to 136
use sick leave, vacation leave or other leave pursuant to employer 137
policy; (B) a mutually agreed-upon shift trade or coverage arrangement 138
between employees, subject to an existing employer policy regarding 139
such shift trade or coverage arrangement; or (C) the inability of the 140
employer's operations to begin or continue due to (i) the failure of a 141
public utility or the shutdown of public transportation, (ii) fire, flood or 142
other natural disaster, or (iii) an emergency declaration issued by the 143
President of the United States or the Governor of this state. 144
(g) An employee may decline to work any shift that begins less than 145
eleven hours after the end of the employee's previous day's shift or 146
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during the eleven-hour period following the end of a shift that spanned 147
more than one day. If an employee consents to work such shift, such 148
consent shall be in writing and the employee shall be compensated at 149
one and one-half times the employee's regular rate of pay for any hours 150
worked during the shift for which the employee consented. 151
(h) An employee may request adjustments to such employee's work 152
schedule, including, but not limited to, requests: (1) Not to be scheduled 153
for work shifts during certain days or times or at certain locations; (2) 154
for certain hours, days or locations of work; (3) for more or fewer work 155
hours; and (4) to be scheduled consistently for a specified or minimum 156
number of weekly work hours. The employer shall engage in an 157
interactive process to discuss such employee requests, but may grant or 158
deny the request for any bona fide business reason that is not unlawful. 159
(i) Each employer subject to the provisions of this section shall, unless 160
exempted by regulations adopted by the Labor Commissioner pursuant 161
to subsection (k) of this section, keep a true and accurate record for not 162
less than three years of: (1) The shifts worked each day and each week 163
by each of its employees, (2) each employee's work schedule, and (3) any 164
revisions to such work schedule. 165
(j) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an employer 166
from adopting policies related to employee scheduling that are more 167
favorable to an employee than those required by this section. 168
(k) Prior to hiring a new employee from an external applicant pool or 169
through a contractor, including a temporary help service or 170
employment agency, as defined in section 31-129 of the general statutes, 171
an employer shall make every effort to schedule existing employees for 172
the desired number of weekly work hours identified in the written 173
statements provided pursuant to subsection (b) of this section, provided 174
the employer may hire a new employee if existing employees lack, and 175
cannot obtain with reasonable training, the qualifications necessary to 176
perform the duties of the position being filled. This section shall not be 177
construed to require any employer to schedule employees to work 178
hours required to be paid at an overtime rate under state or federal law. 179
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If an employer fails to offer existing employees opportunities to work 180
their desired number of weekly work hours before hiring a new 181
employee, the employer shall compensate existing employees at the 182
employees' regular hourly rate for hours worked by a newly hired 183
employee that occurred within the existing employees' written 184
availability. 185
(l) The Labor Commissioner may adopt regulations, in accordance 186
with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, to implement 187
and enforce the provisions of this section. 188
(m) Any person aggrieved by a violation of any provision of this 189
section, the Labor Commissioner, the Attorney General or any entity a 190
member of which is aggrieved by a violation of this section, may bring 191
a civil action to recover damages, civil penalties and such equitable and 192
injunctive relief as the court deems appropriate. Any individual who 193
prevails in such civil action shall be awarded reasonable attorney's fees 194
and costs to be taxed by the court. For each violation of a provision of 195
subsections (b) to (f), inclusive, of this section or subsection (k) of this 196
section, the employer shall pay a civil penalty of two hundred dollars to 197
the Labor Commissioner for each employee affected by the violation 198
during each pay period the violation continued. 199
(n) The Labor Commissioner, or, in the case of a civil action, a court, 200
may grant the following relief to an employee or former employee for a 201
violation of any provision of this section, in addition to, or as an 202
alternative to, any other remedies provided by law: 203
(1) All compensatory damages and other relief required to make the 204
employee or former employee whole; 205
(2) An order directing the employer to comply with the 206
recordkeeping requirements of subsection (i) of this section; and 207
(3) (A) For each violation of a provision of subsections (c) to (e), 208
inclusive, of this section, two hundred dollars and an order directing 209
compliance with said subsections; (B) for each violation of a provision 210
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of subsection (f) of this section, payment of compensation withheld in 211
violation of said subsection, three hundred dollars, and an order 212
directing compliance with said subsection; (C) for each violation of a 213
provision of subsection (b) of this section, two hundred dollars and an 214
order directing compliance with said subsection; and (D) for each 215
violation of a provision of subsection (k) of this section, the greater of 216
five hundred dollars or such employee's actual damages, and an order 217
directing compliance with said subsection. The relief authorized 218
pursuant to this subsection shall be imposed on a per employee and per 219
instance basis for each violation. 220
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 October 1, 2021 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To require certain employers to provide advance notice to certain
employees of the employees' work schedule.
[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.]
Co-Sponsors: SEN. LOONEY, 11th Dist.
S.B. 668