SB 152 — AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF WAREHOUSE WORKERS.

These costs may be partially offset by civil penalty revenue from violations.

1The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts administered by the Comptroller.

The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost associated with most personnel changes is 42.82% of payroll in FY 24.

The bill provides civil penalties of $1,000 for a first violation, $2,000 for a second violation, and $3,000 for subsequent violations which can be recovered following a civil action by the Attorney General.

Any amounts recovered must be deposited in the General Fund and credited to a separate, nonlapsing appropriation to DOL for expenses enforcing the bill's provisions on quotas.

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661 Administration, Investigation & Hearings In order to administer the bill's provisions, including holding hearings under the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act, DOL would require the following staff:

• onepart-time StaffAttorney ($56,385for salary and$24,144for fringe benefits);

• one Wage Enforcement Agent ($89,177 for salary and $38,186 for fringe benefits);

• one Occupational Safety Officer ($103,935 for salary and $44,505 for fringe benefits);

and • one Occupational Training Officer ($101,265 for salary and $43,362 for fringe benefits).

In addition, equipment, supplies, and other overhead costs are anticipated to total $32,000 annually.

Enforcement & Appeals Section 3 allows employees, the Labor Commissioner, or the Attorney General to bring civil action in the Superior Court.

Additionally, appeals to complaints made to the Labor Commissioner may be appealed in Superior Court.

This does not result in any fiscal impact to the state or municipalities.

The court system disposes of over 250,000 cases annually and the number of cases is not anticipated to be great enough to need additional resources.

Workers' Compensation Commission Section 7 requires the Workers’ Compensation Commission to monitor employee injury rates for covered employers and notify DOL Under the bill, an employee who believes that a covered employer violated the bill’s provisions on quotas may file a complaint with the labor commissioner.

Upon receiving the complaint, the commissioner must hold a hearing and, after the hearing, send each party a written copy of her decision.

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661 when such rates are more than 1.5 times the industry average.

This does not result in any fiscal impact to the state as the agency can meet the requirements of the bill within existing resources given coordination with DOL.

The Out Years The annualizedongoing cost impact identifiedabove wouldcontinue into the future subject to inflation.

The ongoing revenue impact identified above would continue into the future.

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661 OLR Bill Analysis sSB 152 AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF WAREHOUSE WORKERS.

SUMMARY This bill limits the extent to which certain warehouse distribution centers can require their employees to meet production quotas.

It generally applies to employers that employ at least (1) 100 employees at a single warehouse distribution center in the state or (2) 1,000 employees, in total, at multiple warehouse distribution centers in the state that are owned and operated by the same business entity.

Among other things, the bill:

1.

requires the covered employers to give their employees a written description of the quotas they must meet and any possible adverse employment actions they may face for failing to do so;

2.

prohibits the employers from requiring employees to meet quotas that prevent (a) legally required meal periods, (b) using restroom facilities,or (c) complying with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA);

and 3.

requires the employers to give a current or former employee, upon request, copies of the employee’s personal work speed data if the employee believes that meeting a quota caused a violation of certain provisions in the bill.

The bill allows an employee who believes that an employer violated the bill’s provisions on quotas to file a complaint with the Department of Labor (DOL) commissioner.

It also allows anyone aggrieved by a violation of its provisions or the attorney general to bring a civil action in Superior Court.

In addition, the bill creates a rebuttable presumption sSB152 / File No.

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661 of a violation if an employer takes any adverse action against an employee within 90 days after the employee requested information about his or her quota or personal work speed data or filed a complaint with the labor commissioner.

The bill allows the labor commissioner to (1) adopt regulations to implement and enforce the bill and (2) develop an outreach program to inform employees and employers about their rights and obligations under the bill.

The program must include distributing notices and other written materials to employers and employees working in a warehouse.

Lastly, the bill creates data collection and reporting requirements for DOL and the Workers’ Compensation Commission to track quota- related injuries in warehouses.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

July 1, 2023 COVERED EMPLOYERS The employers covered by the bill are any domestic or foreign legal or commercial entity that over the previous 12 months employs or exercisescontroloverthewages,hours,or working conditionsofatleast (1) 100 employees at a single warehouse distribution center in the state or (2) 1,000 employees, in total, at multiple warehouse distribution centers in the state that are owned and operated by the same person, partnership,corporation,limitedliabilitycompany,association,orother business entity.

The employer’s exercise of control over the employees may be direct or indirect, or through an agent or another entity, including through the services of a third-party employer, temporary services or staffing agency, independent contractor, or any similar entity.

Under the bill, a warehouse distribution center is an establishment as defined by NorthAmerican Industry Classification System Code493110 for General Warehousing and Storage;

423 for Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods;

424 for Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods;

for Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses;

or 492110 for Couriers and Express Delivery Services.

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661 QUOTAS Under the bill, a “quota” is a performance standard for which an employee may suffer an adverse employment action for failing to complete, and under which the employee:

1.

is assigned or required, within a defined period, to (a) perform a quantified number of tasks or at a specified productivity speed, or (b) handle or produce a quantified amount of material without a certain number of errors or defects, as measured at the individual or group level within a defined period, or 2.

has his or her actions categorized and measured between time performing tasks and not performing tasks within a day.

Disclosure The bill requires covered employers to give each employee a written description of each quota the employee is subject to and any potential adverse employment action that may result from failing to meet it.

The employers must do so by August 1, 2023, for existing employees and at the time of hire for each new employee after that date.

The bill specifies that (1) it does not require employers to use quotas or monitor workspeed dataand(2)employersthat donot monitor work speed data do not have to give it to their employees.

Prohibited Quotas The bill prohibits covered employers from requiring an employee to meet a quota that (1) prevents compliance with OSHA or the state law requiring a 30-minute meal break for anyone working at least seven- and-a-half consecutive hours or (2) interferes with employees using bathroom facilities, including a reasonable time to travel to and from them.

It also prohibits requiring quotas that measure total output in less than one-day increments.

Under the bill, any time an employee takes to comply with OSHA or its regulations must be considered time on task and productive time for any quota or monitoring system.

Meal and rest breaks are not considered productive time unless the employee must be on call.

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661 Employee Access to Work Speed Data If current or former employees believe that meeting a quota caused or will cause a violation of the bill’s provisions on prohibited quotas,the bill allows them to request a (1) written description of each quota they were subject to, (2) copy of their personal work speed data for the most recent 90 days, and(3) copy oftheaggregatework speeddatafor similar employees at the same employer for the same period.

The bill requires each employer to establish, maintain, and preserve true and accurate records of this information for a three-year period.

Underthebill,currentemployeesmayrequestthisinformationorally or in writing from their supervisor or another designated supervisor.

For requests from former employees, the information must cover the 90 days before theemployee’s separationwith the employer.

The bill limits former employees to one request.

The bill requires employers that receive a request for this information to give the employee a written description of each quota and the employee’s personal work speed data within five calendar days after receiving the request.

The employer must give the information in English and the language the employee identifies as his or her primary language.

Under the bill, “work speed data” is information an employer collects, stores, analyzes, or interprets about an employee’s quota performance, such as quantities of tasks performed, quantities of items or materials handled or produced, rates or speeds of tasks performed, or measurements of employee performance in relation to a quota and time categorized as performing tasks or not performing tasks.

Enforcement The bill prohibits covered employers from taking any adverse employment action against an employee for failure to meet a:

1.

quota that prevents compliance with the meal break law or OSHA, or interferes with using bathroom facilities;

2.

quota for which the employee did not receive a written sSB152 / File No.

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661 description, as required by the bill;

or 3.

daily quota if the employee did not complete his or her entire scheduled shift.

Anti-Retaliation.

The bill creates a rebuttable presumption of an adverse employment action in violation of the bill if an employer discriminates, retaliates, or takes any adverse action against an employee within 90 days after the employee (1) requested a written description of a quota or his or her personal work speed data as allowed by the bill or (2) filed a quota-related complaint with the labor commissioner alleging a violation of the bill.

The presumption may be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence that the (1) adverse action was taken for other permissible reasons and (2) employee’s request or complaint was not a motivating factor.

Complaints to DOL.

Under the bill, an employee who believes that a covered employer violated the bill’s provisions on quotas may file a complaint with the labor commissioner.

Upon receiving the complaint, the commissioner must hold a hearing and, after the hearing, send each party a written copy of her decision.

The bill allows the commissioner to award the employee all appropriate relief.

Any party aggrieved by the decision may appeal to the Superior Court under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act.

Ifthecommissionerdeterminesthatanemployerviolatedthebill,she must issueanorder that describes indetail the allegedviolation’snature and directs the employer to comply with the bill’s provisions.

A copy of the order must also be given to the employee who filed the complaint and his or her authorized representative (if any).

Under the bill, the employer may also be liable to DOL for a civil penalty of $1,000 for a first violation;

$2,000 for a second violation;

and $3,000 for a third or subsequent violation.

The bill requires the attorney general, upon the labor commissioner’s complaint, to start a civil action to recover these penalties.

Any amount recovered must be deposited in the General Fund and credited to a separate, nonlapsing appropriation toDOLforcurrentexpenses.DOLmayusethefundstoenforcethebill’s sSB152 / File No.

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661 provisions on quotas.

Civil Suits.

The bill also allows anyone aggrieved by a violation of its provisions on quotas, or the attorney general, to bring a civil action in Superior Court to recover damages, civil penalties, and equitable and injunctive relief.

Anyone who prevails in the action may also be awarded attorney’s fees and costs.

The person bringing the action does not have to exhaust any available administrative remedies before starting it.

DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING The bill requires that the labor commissioner have access to data, including (1) covered employer-reported injury data and enforcement actions in employer warehouses, (2) the identity of uninsured covered employers, (3) covered employers committing workers’ compensation fraud or wage theft, and (4) other information relevant to the commissioner’s authority.

(The bill does not specify from where or how the commissioner must access this data.) It also requires the labor commissioner, by July 1, 2024, to report to the Labor and Public Employees Committee on (1) the number of claims filed with the commissioner for complaints of quota-related violations;

(2) data on warehouse production quotas in warehouses the Workers’ Compensation Commission indicated have average annual employee injury rates that are above the industry average (see below);

and (3) the number of investigations and enforcement actions (presumably, related to quotas).

The bill requirestheWorkers’ CompensationCommissionto monitor injury rates for covered employers.

If an employer has an annual employee injury rate of more than 1.5 times the warehousing industry’s average annual injury rate, then the commission must notify the labor commissioner, who must determine if it is appropriate to investigate for violations of the bill.

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661 BACKGROUND Legislative History The Senate referred the bill (File 462) to the Judiciary Committee, which reported a substitute that allows the court to award attorney’s fees and costs to the prevailing party in a civil action, rather than requiring the award as the underlying bill did.

COMMITTEE ACTION Labor and Public Employees Committee Joint Favorable Substitute Yea 8 Nay 4 (03/21/2023) Judiciary Committee Joint Favorable Substitute Yea 23 Nay 13 (04/19/2023) sSB152 / File No.

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