A ceremonial bill signing by Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday ushers in new protections for workers at large warehouses across Connecticut.
The bill, passed last month, targets “performance quotas” used by companies such as Amazon. Proponents say the quotas can jeopardize worker safety.
Cromwell mayor and labor lawyer James Demetriades calls it a breakthrough, establishing protections from unreasonable demands, saying it provides “transparency in production quotas and work speed requirements, safeguards for scheduled meal breaks and bathroom breaks, and new record-keeping requirements that hold employers accountable.”
“No worker should be micromanaged and monitored for their use of the restroom, or reprimanded for taking a meal break that they’re legally entitled to.”
“The bill sets essential guardrails by prohibiting quotas that interfere with meal breaks, bathroom access or that rely solely on pitting one employee against another,” says Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz.
Connecticut joins just a few other states, including New York and California, with protections specific to warehouse workers.
The Teamsters fought for this bill, although most warehouse workers are not unionized.
“This bill was for the employees of these warehouses who don’t have the protection,” says Sal Abate, Principal Executive Officer of Teamsters Local 443, “who had to worry about going to the bathroom and getting disciplined, who had to worry about losing their job for unsafe work standards that were put on them.”
Critics call the law a case of government overreach and complain it didn’t receive a public hearing as it was passed as part of a larger “emergency certification” bill. Democrats say a similar bill was subject to a public hearing last year before it passed the House and never came up for a vote in the Senate.
The bill applies to companies with at least 100 employees at a single warehouse, 1,000 employees at multiple warehouses.
