2012 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 31 - Labor
Chapter 557 - Employment Regulation
Section 31-57g - Employment protection for displaced service contract workers at Bradley International Airport. Definitions. Obligations of awarding authority and contractors upon termination of service contract; ninety-day retention requirement; required offer of continued employment. Civil action for damages. Penalty for violations.

(a)(1) “Awarding authority” means any person, including a contractor or subcontractor, that awards or otherwise enters into a contract to perform food and beverage services at Bradley International Airport.

(2) “Contractor” means any person that enters into a service contract with the awarding authority and any subcontractors to such service contract at any tier who employs ten or more persons.

(3) “Employee” means any person engaged to perform services pursuant to a service contract, but does not include a person who is (A) a managerial, supervisory or confidential employee, including any person who would be so defined under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or (B) employed for less than fifteen hours per week.

(4) “Person” means any individual, proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation, limited liability company, trust association or other entity that may employ or enter into other contracts, including the state and its political subdivisions.

(5) “Service contract” means a contract for the performance of food and beverage services at Bradley International Airport, let by the awarding authority (A) after July 1, 2001, and before July 1, 2002, provided the successor contractor had actual knowledge of the pendency in the General Assembly of proposed legislation with content similar to this section, or (B) on or after July 1, 2002.

(6) “Successor service contract” means a service contract with the awarding authority under which substantially the same services to be performed have previously been rendered to the awarding authority as part of the same program or at the same facility under another service contract or have previously been rendered by the awarding authority’s own employees.

(7) “Terminated contractor” means a contractor whose service contract expires without renewal or whose contract is terminated, and includes the awarding authority itself when work previously rendered by the awarding authority’s own employees is the subject of a successor service contract.

(b) Each contractor and awarding authority that enters into a service contract to be performed at Bradley International Airport shall be subject to the following obligations:

(1) The awarding authority shall give advance notice to a contractor and the exclusive bargaining representative of any of the contractor’s employees, of the termination or nonrenewal of such service contract and shall provide the contractor and the exclusive bargaining representative with the name, telephone number and address of the successor contractor or contractors, if known. The terminated contractor shall, not later than three days after receipt of such notice, provide the successor contractor with the name, date of hire and employment occupation classification of each person employed by the terminated contractor at the site or sites covered by the service contract as of the date the terminated contractor receives the notice of termination or nonrenewal.

(2) On the date the service contract terminates, the terminated contractor shall provide the successor contractor with updated information concerning the name, date of hire and employment occupation classification of each person employed by the terminated contractor at the site or sites covered by the service contract, to ensure that such information is current up to the actual date of service contract termination.

(3) If the awarding authority fails to notify the terminated contractor of the identity of the successor contractor, as required by subdivision (1) of this subsection, the terminated contractor shall provide the information described in subdivision (2) of this subsection to the awarding authority not later than three days after receiving notice that the service contract will be terminated. The awarding authority shall be responsible for providing such information to the successor contractor as soon as the successor contractor has been selected.

(4) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (D) of this subdivision, a successor contractor shall retain, for at least ninety days from the date of first performance of services under the successor service contract, all of the employees who were continuously employed by the terminated contractor at the site or sites covered by the service contract during the six-month period immediately preceding the termination or nonrenewal of such service contract, including any periods of layoff or leave with recall rights.

(B) Except as provided in subparagraph (D) of this subdivision, if the successor service contract is terminated prior to the expiration of such ninety-day period, then any contractor awarded a subsequent successor service contract shall be bound by the requirements set forth in this subsection to retain, for a new ninety-day period commencing with the onset of the subsequent successor service contract, all of the employees who were previously employed by any one or more of the terminated contractors at the site or sites covered by the service contract continuously during the six-month period immediately preceding the date of the most recently terminated service contract, including any periods of layoff or leave with recall rights.

(C) At least five days prior to the termination of a service contract, or at least fifteen days prior to the commencement of the first performance of service under a successor service contract, whichever is later, the successor contractor shall hand-deliver a written offer of employment in substantially the form set forth below to each such employee in such employee’s native language or any other language in which such employee is fluent:

“IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR EMPLOYMENT

To: ....(Name of employee)

We have received information that you are employed by .... (name of predecessor contractor) and are currently performing work at .... (address of worksite) .... (name of predecessor contractor’s) contract to perform .... (describe services under contract) at .... (address of worksite) will terminate as of .... (last day of predecessor contract) and it will no longer be providing those services as of that date.

We are .... (name of successor contractor) and have been hired to provide services similar to those of .... (name of predecessor contractor) at .... (address of worksite). We are offering you a job with us for a ninety-day probationary period starting .... (first day of successor contract) to perform the same type of work that you have already been doing for .... (name of predecessor contractor) under the following terms:

Payrate (per hour): $....

Hours per shift: ....

Total hours per week: ....

Benefits: ....

You must respond to this offer within the next ten days. If you want to continue working at .... (address of worksite) you must let us know by .... (no later than ten days after the date of this letter). If we do not receive your response by the end of business that day, we will not hire you and you will lose your job. We can be reached at .... (successor contractor telephone number).

Connecticut state law gives you the following rights:

1. You have the right with certain exceptions, to be hired by our company for the first ninety days that we begin to provide services at .... (address of worksite).

2. During this ninety-day period, you cannot be fired without just cause.

3. If you believe that you have been fired or laid off in violation of this law, you have the right to sue us and be awarded back pay, attorneys’ fees and court costs.

From: .... (Name of successor contractor)

.... (Address of successor contractor)

.... (Telephone number of successor contractor)”

Each offer of employment shall state the time within which such employee must accept such offer but in no case shall that time be less than ten days from the date of the offer of employment.

(D) The provisions of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this subdivision shall not be construed to require a successor contractor to retain any employee whose attendance and performance records, while working under the terminated service contract, would lead a reasonably prudent employer to terminate the employee.

(5) If at any time a successor contractor determines that fewer employees are required to perform the successor service contract than were required by the terminated contractor, the successor contractor shall be required to retain such employees by seniority within each job classification, based upon the employees’ total length of service at the affected site or sites.

(6) During such ninety-day period, the successor contractor shall maintain a preferential hiring list of employees eligible for retention pursuant to subdivision (4) of this subsection, who were not initially retained by the successor contractor, from which the successor contractor shall hire additional employees, if necessary.

(7) Except as provided under subdivision (5) of this subsection, during such ninety-day period, the successor contractor shall not discharge without just cause an employee retained pursuant to this section. For purposes of this subdivision, “just cause” shall be determined solely by the performance or conduct of the particular employee.

(8) If the performance of an employee retained pursuant to this section is satisfactory during the ninety-day period, the successor contractor shall offer the employee continued employment under the terms and conditions established by the successor contractor, or as required by law.

(c) (1) An employee displaced or terminated in violation of this section, or such employee’s collective bargaining representative, may bring an action in Superior Court against the awarding authority, the terminated contractor or the successor contractor, jointly or severally, to recover damages for any violation of the obligations imposed under this section.

(2) If the employee prevails in such action, the court may award the employee (A) back pay, including the value of benefits, for each day during which the violation continues, that shall be calculated at a rate of compensation not less than the higher of (i) the average regular rate of pay received by the employee during the last year of employment in the same job occupation classification, or, if the employee has been employed for less than one year, the average rate of pay for the employee’s entire employment multiplied by the average number of hours worked per day over the last four months of employment preceding the date of the violation, or (ii) the final regular rate of pay received by the employee at the date of termination multiplied by the average number of hours worked per day over the last four months, and (B) reinstatement to the employee’s former position at not less than the most recent rate of compensation received by the employee, including the value of any benefits.

(3) If the employee prevails in such action, the court shall award the employee reasonable attorney fees and costs.

(4) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to limit an employee’s right to bring a common law cause of action for wrongful termination against the awarding authority, the terminated contractor or the successor contractor.

(d) Any awarding authority or contractor who knowingly violates the provisions of this section shall pay a penalty not to exceed one hundred dollars per employee for each day the violation continues.

(P.A. 02-134, S. 1; P.A. 03-278, S. 90; P.A. 06-129, S. 8.)

History: P.A. 02-134 effective July 1, 2002; P.A. 03-278 made a technical change in Subsec. (a)(1) and (2), effective July 9, 2003; P.A. 06-129 amended Subsec. (c) to provide right of employee’s collective bargaining representative to bring civil action for damages.