Consider this: An employee signs a perfectly reasonable non-compete/non-solicitation agreement at the inception of employment. The employee remains with the employer for ten years and during that period, receives several promotions each of which changes or increases the employee’s duties. Each of these jobs requires the employee to have significant customer contacts and become privy…
We are pleased to announce that Paul Lambert of 360 Corporate Benefit Advisors, an independent employee benefits consulting agency with specific expertise in health and welfare consulting, will be the lunchtime speaker at our upcoming seminar on March 14. His topic is The Affordable Care Act—A View from Ground Zero. Paul will cover how the…
The recent announcement by CVS pharmacies to eliminate the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products prompts a review of the employment statutes that pertain to smoking by employees. In brief, employers can limit or prohibit smoking on the job, but not outside the course of employment. Section 31-40q of the Connecticut General Statutes protects…
Employers increasingly are concerned about threats to safety in the workplace. At the same time, employers must be aware of the rights of any employee accused of wrongdoing. For a discussion of a recent case highlighting this tension, please visit Education Law Notes.…
The General Assembly’s Labor and Public Employees Committee will be having its next public hearing on Thursday, February 27, 2014 at 1:00 PM in Room 1E of the Legislative Office Building. The Committee will consider the following bills: Senate Bill. No. 219 (RAISED), AN ACT CONCERNING THE MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT SYSTEM CONTRIBUTION RATE. This bill…
In a much ballyhooed case, certain residents and taxpayers of the City of Bridgeport brought a “quo warranto” action in the courts, challenging the qualifications of the City’s Superintendent of Schools (Paul Vallas) to hold his position, due to a failure to have the appropriate certification for a Connecticut school superintendent. Vallas came to the…
As part of Pullman & Comley’s ongoing seminar series addressing the latest legal developments affecting employers and the workplace, we are pleased to announce that our Spring Seminar will be held this year on Friday, March 14 in Norwalk. Topics will include: The Affordable Care Act: What Employers Need to Know Now The DOL’s “Misclassification…
In a previous post, we discussed the importance of Kwan v. The Andalex Group LLC, – F.3d – (2d Cir. 2013) as it related to the likelihood of obtaining summary judgment on Title VII retaliation claims in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Nassar decision, which seemingly raised the employee’s standard of proof of…
On February 6, 2014, the 2014 session of the Connecticut General Assembly began. Since this is an election year, the session will be relatively short, with adjournment scheduled for May 7, 2014. We can expect a plethora of proposed bills affecting Connecticut employers and employees that will be unleashed during the session, most of which…
As you may have learned through media reports or your favorite television cop show, allegations of misdeeds by police officers usually proceed through a police department’s “Internal Affairs” [“IA”] investigation process. In today’s world, it is not surprising that journalists and members of the public may want to have access to these IA records and…
Connecticut has an interesting statute, Conn. Gen. Stat. 31-21, which declares that “eight hours of labor performed in any one day by any one person shall be a legal day’s work unless otherwise agreed.” But what is the meaning of a ‘legal day’s work,” and does it restrict employers and employees who would like to…
When we analyze the question whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, we usually approach the issue from the point of view of the Connecticut Department of Labor and apply the “ABC” test, or from the point of view of another government agency (i.e., the IRS or the USDOL) and apply the…
Our attorneys Rachel Ginsburg, Megan Carannante and Zach Schurin have articles in this week’s Connecticut Law Tribune that are likely of interest to our readers. Rachel and Megan’s article “Sifting Through the Weeds: Medical Marijuana Law Has Implications for Employers” can be found at the link above. This insightful article discusses the conflicts Connecticut new…
Led by the non-profit group, National Cyber Security Alliance, the first Data Privacy Day was celebrated in the United States in 2008. We here at Pullman & Comley got a jump on celebrating Data Privacy Day with our “Data Privacy, Cybersecurity and Your Business” Seminar last week, and we know that it is important to…
Yesterday (January 27), the Supreme Court issued a ruling that defines the word “clothes” for purposes of a federal statute that allows employers and unions to bargain over pay for time spent by employees “changing clothes or washing at the beginning or end of each workday.” According to Justice Scalia, who relies on a 1950…
