Conn. Workers’ Comp, Sick Pay Bills Falter as Legislature Closes

Connecticut employers sighed with relief as several labor and workers’ compensation bills that had been advancing died when the state Legislature adjourned its regular session at midnight on June 6.

Chief among them was a bill that would have increased workers’ compensation benefits for injured workers. The proposal would have extended the maximum number of weeks of additional benefits for partial permanent disabilities that a workers’ compensation commissioner may award after the worker has exhausted his or her regular benefits.

The Connecticut Senate approved the bill 21-15 but it died before the House voted on it.

Proponents favored the bill as a “modest step” toward helping Connecticut’s injured workers, while opponents including the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and a coalition of more than 100 business groups, warned it could increase workers’ compensation expenses for employers.

The Senate also passed another bill opposed by CBIA and businesses that mandated that all employers with more than 50 workers provide paid sick days.

“It is unfortunate that the legislature spent so much time considering bills that only would have set the state’s economy back – just the fact that the bills made it so far in the legislative process sends a decidedly wrong message to the state’s business community,” CBIA said in a statement.

Source: CBIA