Connecticut Employment Law Blog

Insight on Labor & Employment Developments for Connecticut Businesses

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By: Shipman & Goodwin, LLP

Blog Authors

Daniel Schwartz
Shipman & Goodwin
Gary S. Starr

Latest from Connecticut Employment Law Blog

IMG_2884
Back in 2011, I wondered aloud: Might the impact of new arbitration decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court bring about the end to big wage & hour class actions? At the time, I said it would be premature. Seven years later – what’s changed? Well, as it turns out, wage & hour class actions are not dead. Indeed, based on some statistics, they’re as costly as ever. Earlier this year, the Workplace Class Action…
pumpkin
In the last few months, I’ve had some inquiries from employers asking about resources for layoffs. Yawn. Everyone remembers the layoffs of the recession, right? Actually no, as it turns out. In the ten years since the last great round of layoffs, there is a big group of new managers, directors, human resource personnel, lawyers etc that have joined the workforce.  And, as it turns out, they really DON’T remember the layoffs.  Unemployment is low. …
pregnant2
Lawyers love their cocktail chatter. And at a recent bar event, an interesting hypothetical came up among lawyers: Suppose an employee is trying to get pregnant and is thinking about infertility treatments.  She’s considering time off for rest, and perhaps even for some in vitro fertilization (IVF) appointments. Perhaps even the doctor has said that the employee needs “light duty” work during certain days.   Maybe things are a little more hazy; suppose the employee just…
Medical Marijuana Prescription
One of the benefits of writing a blog as long as I have is that you get to track the progress of a law or legal development over a number of years. It was back in 2012, for example, that I first provided a comprehensive summary of a new medical marijuana bill that was making it’s way through the legislature. And I was quick to note that the law had enough questions attached to…
bits
Do you remember when the Target store data breach made news? This was not that long ago, and yet, five years later we’ve arguably become immune to the news. Take Facebook’s latest snafu — 50 million accounts compromised.  And yet, it hardly made headlines for a 24 hour period. Heck, even the U.S. State Department has had personal information about its employees breached in the last month — though “only” one percent may…
congress
Last year I talked about how the new era of sexual harassment claims was coming.  The open question was: Would the number of claims actually increase? The answer to that is now known: Yes. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released its preliminary data regarding workplace harassment today. And it’s findings shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve been paying attention. Among the notable pieces of data: Charges filed with the EEOC alleging sexual harassment increased…
secrets
If you’ve been playing close attention, this blog has been a bit quiet of late.  Indeed, it’s probably the longest stretch between posts in the 11 years I’ve been doing this. It’s not for lack of ideas. Rather, after many years of spouting off (which, after all, is the underlying purpose of the blog), I found myself desiring to do a lot more listening.  Listening to employers. Listening to my colleagues. Listening to other lawyers. …
Burger
Trying to follow both state and federal wage and hour laws isn’t that hard. But it isn’t that easy either. Let’s say you’re a restaurant with a waitstaff.  Like most restaurants nowadays, your customers pay by credit card and you, the employer, have to pay the credit card company a percentage on each sale. You know there are rules regarding deductions of the wages to employees. But what about tips? Can you take out the percentage…
supremecourtct
On “Survivor”, one of my favorite broadcast TV shows (or, as my YouTube/Netflix watching teens might say — “what’s that?”) the notion of “immunity” plays a central role in the outcome of an episode. And in a decision released last week by the Connecticut Supreme Court, whether or not to grant immunity again plays a pivotal role for religious employers. In its unanimous decision, the court refused to grant outright immunity to a religious institution…
bryan_stevenson
Like a lot of people, I’ve got the summer bug and, given the choice between a walk outside and a blog post — well, you can figure out what has been winning. But I’ve got a few posts lined back up the next few weeks.  In the interim, I want to share with you one of the most meaningful and amazing speeches I’ve ever heard in person. It’s from last week when I attended the…