Rojgar Job News

A bill that would have brought the state’s tipping regulations in line with federal regulations was not brought up for a veto override vote earlier this week. I previously covered the subject in prior posts here and here. According to a report in CT Mirror, a “deal” is now being sought that would allow the issue to be brought back before the General Assembly.  However, that may not happen until next year. ( Update on July 29, 2019:  The deal may be brought before a special session late this summer.) As a result, restaurants should continue to ensure that they meet the requirements of the state’s confusing regulations on service vs. non-service work. I covered that in a prior post. This will, no doubt, come as a disappointment to some who had sought to have this bill go under the radar.   Indeed, I even heard grumblings that I shouldn’t have even posted about it — as if talking about something that passed the General Assembly o...

A hearing is set for Thursday on draft legislation to “fix” a bill that had been earlier vetoed and that I discussed in a post earlier this week.  CTNewsJunkie.com was first to report on the details earlier Wednesday. The bill comes at an interesting crossroads in restaurant wage/hour law. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Labor released proposed guidance that would give restaurants far greater latitude in deciding on tip pools and the application of the tip credit. Indeed, the proposed federal regulation would permit a tip credit to be taken  regardless of the percentage of servers’ time that’s spent on so-called “non-service” duties, provided this side work is done during, just before, or a reasonable time after regular “service” time. The proposed Connecticut bill can be found here and would require the CTDOL to write regulations that employers can then, in good faith, rely upon. The bill would also try to limit ...

So a few months ago, I got a call from a CTDOL employee asking if I knew about a certain bill that had passed the legislature. I was still reviewing the bills but decided to take a deeper look. As it turned out, a deal had been struck to insert language in the last few hours into an otherwise procedural bill that gave restaurants some needed protection from very costly wage & hour lawsuits that have been filed.  And I posted about it. I reached out to a few people before clicking publish but was told to go ahead — nothing to worry about or “see”. Except, of course, there was plenty to see because this was a bill that no one was supposed to see before it was signed by the Governor. Eeek. I later discovered that the Governor’s office had not been involved in the deal and my blog post was news to the them.  I even got a call from another attorney representing a restaurant who wanted me to take my blog post down. (Which is, of course, kinda crazy since ...