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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 315
AN ACT CONCERNING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR
ADJUNCT HIGHER EDUCATION FACULTY.
SUMMARY
By law, Connecticut higher education institutions’ instructional,
research, or principal administrative employees are ineligible to receive
unemployment benefits if they are likely to be rehired after weeks of
unemployment (1) between two successive academic years; (2) between
two regular terms, regardless of whether they are successive; or (3)
during a customary vacation period or holiday recess. The labor
commissioner makes this ineligibility determination based on whether
the employee has a contract or a “reasonable assurance” that he or she
will work in any capacity for the educational institution in the
subsequent academic year or term or period following the vacation or
holiday recess (i.e., “once courses resume”).
This bill requires the commissioner to determine on a case-by-case
basis whether there is reasonable assurance for these higher education
employees’ rehiring. It establishes multiple factors that must collectively
be present for the commissioner to find that reasonable assurance exists.
Lastly, the bill creates new reporting duties for higher education
institutions, requiring them to submit two employee lists to the
Department of Labor (DOL) at the end of an academic year or term to
help inform the commissioner’s reasonable assurance findings.
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2022
REASONABLE ASSURANCE DETERMINATION
Under the bill, the labor commissioner must determine that several
factors are present when finding that a higher education employee has
reasonable assurance to be rehired and is ineligible to receive
unemployment benefits. These factors are as follows: 2022SB-00315-R000265-BA.DOCX
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1. the higher education institution has made a written, oral, or
implied offer to employ the person once courses resume;
2. the offer was made by an employee of the institution who is
authorized to make it;
3. the offer is for the same type of services that the person provided
and for at least 90% of the wages or a salary that the institution
paid to the person in the first academic year or term or in the
period before the customary vacation or holiday recess;
4. the offer is not contingent on factors within the institution’s
control, including course programming, available funding
allocation, program modifications, or facility availability; and
5. it is highly probable that the person will provide services in the
same capacity once courses resume, based on the totality of the
circumstances, including funding availability, past enrollment
levels, the person’s seniority level, and the nature of the
contingencies on the offer.
HIGHER EDUCATION EMPLOYEE LISTS
Under the bill, Connecticut higher education institutions must
submit two employee lists to DOL at least 10 days before the last day of
an academic year or term. The first list must contain the names and
social security numbers of people who (1) served in an instructional,
research, or principal administrative capacity for the institution and (2)
do not have reasonable assurance of providing the same services in the
same capacity once courses resume.
The second list must contain employees who performed the same
services and have reasonable assurance of providing these services in
the same capacity once courses resume. However, the second list must
also describe how the institution provided reasonable assurance to these
employees, including (1) whether an offer was made in writing, orally,
or implied; (2) the nature of any offer contingencies; and (3) the
information about the offer communicated to the employee. 2022SB-00315-R000265-BA.DOCX
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The bill allows the labor commissioner to consider these two lists
when making reasonable assurance determinations, but the lists cannot
be the sole, conclusive evidence of reasonable assurance, or lack thereof,
in any case. It also requires the commissioner to consider an institution’s
failure to submit this information as establishing a rebuttable
presumption of the lack of reasonable assurance of an employee’s
rehiring.
If an institution gives a person a reasonable assurance but does not
honor it once courses resume, the bill requires that the person’s
unemployment benefits be retroactive to either (1) the date of the
institution’s attestation of reasonable assurance or (2) the date the
attestation of assurance is required (presumably, the deadline for
submitting the lists required by the bill). (It is unclear how this provision
would apply if the person was still employed by the institution for any
time on and after either of these dates.)
BACKGROUND
Related Bill
sHB 5030 (File 12), favorably reported by the Higher Education and
Employment Advancement Committee, contains substantially similar
provisions to this bill.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Labor and Public Employees Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 10 Nay 3 (03/22/2022)