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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 222
AN ACT CONCERNING CHANGES TO THE PAID FAMILY AND
MEDICAL LEAVE STATUTES.
SUMMARY
This bill makes various changes in the state’s paid family and medical
leave insurance (PFMLI) law, Family and Medical Leave Act
(CTFMLA), and family violence leave law. In general, the PFMLI
program is an employee-funded program that provides up to 12 weeks
of partial wage replacement benefits to employees on unpaid leave from
employment under the CTFMLA (e.g., for the birth of a child or a serious
health condition) or family violence leave law (e.g., to obtain victim
services or relocate).
Among other things, the bill:
1. codifies requirements for employers to register and submit
reports to the PFMLI Authority, which administers the program;
2. broadens the authority’s powers to issue penalties for attempted
fraud and sets a process for recovering benefit overpayments and
penalties;
3. allows the governor to enter into a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with the state’s federally recognized tribes
to allow employees of the tribe or any tribally owned business to
participate in the PFMLI program;
4. requires health care providers to display an authority-developed
or -approved informational poster about the PFMLI program;
5. allows claimants to receive PFMLI benefits concurrently with
benefits from the state’s Victim Compensation Program within 2024SB-00222-R000075-BA.DOCX
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certain limitations;
6. broadens the state’s family violence leave law to also allow leave
for sexual assault victims; and
7. defines a “municipality” under the PFMLI law and CTFMLA.
Lastly, the PFMLI law requires the authority to annually report
certain information such as the program’s participation, trust fund
balance, and claimant demographics. The bill changes the annual
reporting date from July 1 to September 1.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2024, except that the provision
changing the annual report date is effective upon passage.
§ 2 — EMPLOYER REGISTRATIO N AND REPORTING
REQUIREMENT
The bill explicitly requires each employer subject to the PFMLI law
and paying wages to an employee to (1) register with the PFMLI
Authority, which administers the program, and (2) submit reports
required by the authority in a form and way it sets. (In practice, the
authority already requires employers to do this.) Under the bill,
employers that fail to comply are subject to penalties the authority
establishes under its general authority to implement the PFMLI law (the
bill does not otherwise specify any limitations or other criteria for this
penalty).
§ 4 — ATTEMPTED FRAUD, OVE RPAYMENTS, AND PENAL TIES
Overpayments and Attempted Fraud
Existing law allows the authority to seek a repayment of overpaid
PFMLI benefits from claimants who received them erroneously or
before their claim was subsequently rejected. And when a claimant
receives benefits due to willful misrepresentation the authority may also
issue a penalty that equals half of the benefits paid. The bill allows the
authority to impose this same penalty (half of the benefits applied for)
for attempted willful misrepresentation.
The bill further specifies that the authority must charge anyone who 2024SB-00222-R000075-BA.DOCX
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was overpaid or assessed a penalty with the amount due, and requires
the person to repay the overpayment or penalty to the authority under
a payment schedule the authority determines. The bill subjects anyone
who fails to make the required repayment or penalty payments to a one
percent per month interest rate on the amount owed. It also allows the
authority to recover the amount and interest owed (1) through a wage
execution or (2) by asking the administrative services commissioner to
seek reimbursement though an income tax refund withholding.
§§ 1 & 6 — TRIBAL MOU
Existing law, unchanged by the bill, requires the governor to submit
any compact between the state and an Indian tribe to the legislature for
approval or rejection (CGS § 3-6c). Regardless of this provision, the bill
allows the governor, in consultation with the authority, to enter into a
MOU with any federally recognized tribe in the state to authorize
employees of both the tribe and any tribally owned business to
participate in the PFMLI program. Once they enter into the MOU, they
would be considered an employer under the PFMLI law; however, the
bill also requires that their participation be governed solely by the
MOU’s terms. (Presumably, the MOU would prevail if its provisions
conflict with how the law treats an “employer.”)
§ 3 — INFORMATIONAL POSTER
The bill requires the PFMLI Authority, by October 1, 2024, to develop
or approve an informational poster for health care providers to display.
It requires each health care provider to display the poster in a clear and
conspicuous way accessible to patients and caregivers. The “health care
providers” subject to the requirement include doctors of medicine or
osteopathy; podiatrists, dentists, psychologists, optometrists, and
chiropractors; advanced practice registered nurses, nurse practitioners,
nurse midwives, and clinical social workers; and certain Christian
Science practitioners.
§ 2 — BENEFITS FROM OTHER PROGRAMS
The PFMLI law prohibits claimants receiving PFMLI benefits
concurrently with unemployment or workers’ compensation benefits.
The bill specifies that this prohibition applies to claimants concurrently 2024SB-00222-R000075-BA.DOCX
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receiving income replacement benefits from those programs.
The bill also explicitly allows claimants to receive PFMLI benefits
concurrently with benefits from the victim compensation program
administered by the Judicial Department’s Office of Victim Services, as
long as the total benefit the claimants receive during their leave does not
exceed their regular pay rate.
§ 8 — CT FAMILY VIOLENCE LEAVE AND SEXUA L ASSAULT
VICTIMS
The state’s family violence leave law generally allows certain
employees to take leave from work (and qualify for PFMLI benefits) if
they are a family violence victim who needs to miss work for certain
related reasons. The bill broadens this law to also cover sexual assault
victims. Similar to family violence victims, it allows an employee who
is a sexual assault victim to take the leave if it is reasonably necessary to
(1) seek medical care or psychological or other counseling, (2) obtain
services from a victim services organization, (3) relocate, or (4)
participate in a civil or criminal proceeding related to or resulting from
the assault.
As under existing law for family violence victims, (1) these provisions
apply to people working for an employer with three or more employees
and (2) the person’s employer can limit the allowable unpaid leave to 12
days per calendar year and request certain documentation from the
employee (generally, police or court records or a signed statement from
certain sources).
Under the bill, “sexual assault” includes all penal code crimes of
unlawful contact with the intimate parts of another person’s body,
except aggravated sexual assault of a minor.
§§ 1 & 7 — MUNICIPALITIES UNDER THE PFMLI LAW AND CTFMLA
The bill specifies that a “municipality” under the PFMLI law and
CTFMLA is any metropolitan district, town, consolidated town and city,
consolidated town and borough, city, borough, village, fire and sewer
district, sewer district, and each municipal organization authorized to
levy and collect taxes. The current PFMLI law and CTFMLA do not 2024SB-00222-R000075-BA.DOCX
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define a municipality under them, but municipalities are not employers
covered by CTFMLA, and they are only covered under the PFMLI law
if their employees join the program through collective bargaining.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Labor and Public Employees Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 8 Nay 4 (03/07/2024)