The strength of labor and the political left in Connecticut, one of 17 states where Democrats hold control the executive and legislative branches of government, will be tested this year as a coalition seeks to expand the state’s limited mandate on paid sick days into a nearly universal benefit.

Watered-down sick days legislation passed in 2011 touches only a thin sliver of workers, but it packed a political punch as the first mandate of its kind in the U.S., branding Connecticut as favorable terrain for laws and benefits unattainable in Congress or by collective bargaining.

“Connecticut likes to lead. And unfortunately, this is an area where we were leaders in 2011, but we have fallen behind,” said Sen. Julie Kushner, D-Danbury, co-chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee since taking office in January 2019, the same day as Gov. Ned Lamont.

An expansion bill passed by the Senate and favored by the governor failed in the House last year, a frustrating session for a labor movement that had scored major victories in previous years, including a $15 million minimum wage and a paid family and medical leave program financed by mandatory payroll deductions.

Kushner, who was a UAW official leading a coalition pushing paid sick days in 2011, and Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, pronounced paid sick leave expansion a top priority Friday. House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said he sees passage as likely.

The current law exempts manufacturers, some non-profits and any employer with fewer than 50 employees. It places no added burden on companies that already offer at least 40 hours in paid time off over the year, regardless of whether it is considered vacation, personal days or sick time.

Eligible workers accrue one hour of leave time for every 40 hours worked, with a maximum state-mandated benefit of five days off.

With every Republican opposed and four Democrats absent, the Senate voted 20-12 last year for a bill that would have eliminated the 50-employee threshold and the non-profit exemption. Any company with at least one employee would have been required to offer one hour off for every 30 hours worked. The bill also doubled the maximum benefit from 40 hours to 80.

The Lamont administration had proposed a bill lowering the threshold from 50 to  11 workers, but it agreed to the Senate version. The measure never came to a vote in the House.

“I think we’ll get there,” Ritter said Friday in an interview.

House Democrats last year proposed compromises, including one expanding coverage in phases over several years, bringing down the employee threshold from 50 to 25 immediately, then 20 next year, 15 the year after that and so on.

Janée Woods Weber, the director of Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, an advocacy group that led the campaign for passage and has since been renamed as She Leads Justice, rejected the phase-in because it never reached universal coverage.

Woods Weber said Friday that anything less than universal coverage was non-negotiable.

“A good policy would cover all workers,” she said. “We’re committed to passing good policy, not policy that we have to then come back and try to fix like, we’re trying to fix the 2011 law, which left out many, many workers.”

The state’s largest business group, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, remains opposed, though less about the particulars of the bill as the statement that passage would make about the business climate.

“That’s what is most concerning to me, the larger message,” said Chris DiPentima, the president and chief executive of CBIA. With every new mandate comes regulations in a state where CBIA says businesses already are over-regulated.

Lamont is generally deemed to be supportive of business, especially in the area of spending and taxes, but the Democratic governor has sided with labor over the minimum wage and paid family and medical leave, among other issues.

The governor intends to propose his own version of a bill to expand paid sick days. While his bill last year only would have applied to businesses with at least 11 workers, the version planned this year will have a threshold of only one.

With unions representing fewer than 10% of private-sector workers in Connecticut, labor and its allies have long looked to achieve in legislation what is beyond the reach of collective bargaining.

Looney, the Senate leader, said that is appropriate for government to intervene in providing something he sees as a basic right — sick days.

“We see these as just so basic and fundamental in terms of the social compact and equity that the state has to step in,” Looney said. “This is so critical because it benefits people who are living without a margin, living without a net, living day to day.”

Mark Pazniokas is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/ ). Copyright 2024 © The Connecticut Mirror.