As the state budget crisis looms over the 2010 legislative session, unemployment climbs and election-year politics play out in Connecticut, many in the business community fear that lawmakers will promote legislation that will cost, not create, more jobs.
Despite the state”™s difficult situation, some lawmakers somehow keep ignoring how their actions actually put jobs at risk. The Labor Committee, for example, has introduced several proposals that will chill job growth in Connecticut ”“ including changes to the workers”™ compensation system and the return of a paid sick leave mandate.
Last year, most of these damaging proposals were defeated, but the fact that lawmakers even bring them up is harmful to prospects for more jobs.
As Gov. Jodi M. Rell outlined in her State of the State address, growing and creating jobs in Connecticut must be the top priority for lawmakers, and controlling the costs of hiring and retaining a work force in the state is a primary way to accomplish that goal.
Businesses, lawmakers and organized labor unions can work together to craft solutions to the state”™s labor issues and identify mutually beneficial objectives to move Connecticut forward, and make the state a more attractive place for business.
The business community is calling on lawmakers to:
Refrain from increasing unemployment taxes for employers beyond what is absolutely needed to maintain state Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund solvency and to meet unemployment benefit obligations.
CBIA recommendations
Allow employers flexibility in meeting the needs of their employees and businesses by rejecting one-size-fits-all mandates.
Refrain from mandating minimum amounts of paid time off from work, and other employer-sponsored fringe benefits, that ignore company policies, business demands or industry norms.
Avoid creating new categories of workplace claims that hold employers liable for employee actions that are beyond their control.
Maintain reforms of Connecticut”™s workers”™ compensation system that made the system fairer, more effective and less costly while still granting generous benefits.
Reject measures that increase costs or administrative burdens for employers when handling workers”™ compensation claims.
Allow employers to freely communicate with their employees about issues affecting their jobs, the workplace and employee benefits, by retaining the secret ballot process for labor union elections.
The bottom line is that the costs of hiring and maintaining a work force in Connecticut are among the highest in the nation. Legislation that imposes costly new employer mandates, expands employee benefits and creates burdensome regulations will only increase labor costs, ultimately making it more difficult to grow and retain jobs here. We urge legislators to work with the business community to understand how labor proposals affect employers”™ ability to survive and drive Connecticut”™s economic recovery.
Kia Murrell is assistant counsel at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, specializing in labor issues. Reach her at Kia.murrell@cbia.com.
