Bill Text: CT HB05284 | 2010 | General Assembly | Comm Sub

Connecticut House Bill 5284 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: An Act Concerning Domestic Violence Victims And Discriminatory Practices.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-03-11 - Favorable Change of Reference, Senate to Committee on Judiciary [HB05284 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2010-HB05284-Comm_Sub.html


General Assembly		*Raised Bill No. 5284*
*February Session, 2010*		LCO No. 1356
		_____HB05284LABJUD030910____
Referred to Committee on Labor and Public Employees
Introduced by:
(LAB)

AN ACT CONCERNING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS AND DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Section 46a-60 of the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 1, 2010):

(a) It shall be a discriminatory practice in violation of this section:

(1) For an employer, by the employer or the employer's agent, except in the case of a bona fide occupational qualification or need, to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or to discharge from employment any individual or to discriminate against such individual in compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of the individual's race, color, religious creed, age, sex, marital status, actual or perceived status as a victim of domestic violence, national origin, ancestry, present or past history of mental disability, mental retardation, learning disability or physical disability, including, but not limited to, blindness;

(2) For any employment agency, except in the case of a bona fide occupational qualification or need, to fail or refuse to classify properly or refer for employment or otherwise to discriminate against any individual because of such individual's race, color, religious creed, age, sex, marital status, actual or perceived status as a victim of domestic violence, national origin, ancestry, present or past history of mental disability, mental retardation, learning disability or physical disability, including, but not limited to, blindness;

(3) For a labor organization, because of the race, color, religious creed, age, sex, marital status, actual or perceived status as a victim of domestic violence, national origin, ancestry, present or past history of mental disability, mental retardation, learning disability or physical disability, including, but not limited to, blindness of any individual to exclude from full membership rights or to expel from its membership such individual or to discriminate in any way against any of its members or against any employer or any individual employed by an employer, unless such action is based on a bona fide occupational qualification;

(4) For any person, employer, labor organization or employment agency to discharge, expel or otherwise discriminate against any person because such person has opposed any discriminatory employment practice or because such person has filed a complaint or testified or assisted in any proceeding under section 46a-82, 46a-83 or 46a-84;

(5) For any person, whether an employer or an employee or not, to aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce the doing of any act declared to be a discriminatory employment practice or to attempt to do so;

(6) For any person, employer, employment agency or labor organization, except in the case of a bona fide occupational qualification or need, to advertise employment opportunities in such a manner as to restrict such employment so as to discriminate against individuals because of their race, color, religious creed, age, sex, marital status, actual or perceived status as a victim of domestic violence, national origin, ancestry, present or past history of mental disability, mental retardation, learning disability or physical disability, including, but not limited to, blindness;

(7) For an employer, by the employer or the employer's agent: (A) To terminate a woman's employment because of her pregnancy; (B) to refuse to grant to that employee a reasonable leave of absence for disability resulting from her pregnancy; (C) to deny to that employee, who is disabled as a result of pregnancy, any compensation to which she is entitled as a result of the accumulation of disability or leave benefits accrued pursuant to plans maintained by the employer; (D) to fail or refuse to reinstate the employee to her original job or to an equivalent position with equivalent pay and accumulated seniority, retirement, fringe benefits and other service credits upon her signifying her intent to return unless, in the case of a private employer, the employer's circumstances have so changed as to make it impossible or unreasonable to do so; (E) to fail or refuse to make a reasonable effort to transfer a pregnant employee to any suitable temporary position which may be available in any case in which an employee gives written notice of her pregnancy to her employer and the employer or pregnant employee reasonably believes that continued employment in the position held by the pregnant employee may cause injury to the employee or fetus; (F) to fail or refuse to inform the pregnant employee that a transfer pursuant to subparagraph (E) of this subdivision may be appealed under the provisions of this chapter; or (G) to fail or refuse to inform employees of the employer, by any reasonable means, that they must give written notice of their pregnancy in order to be eligible for transfer to a temporary position;

(8) For an employer, by the employer or the employer's agent, for an employment agency, by itself or its agent, or for any labor organization, by itself or its agent, to harass any employee, person seeking employment or member on the basis of sex. "Sexual harassment" shall, for the purposes of this section, be defined as any unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors or any conduct of a sexual nature when (A) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment, (B) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual, or (C) such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment;

(9) For an employer, by the employer or the employer's agent, for an employment agency, by itself or its agent, or for any labor organization, by itself or its agent, to request or require information from an employee, person seeking employment or member relating to the individual's child-bearing age or plans, pregnancy, function of the individual's reproductive system, use of birth control methods, or the individual's familial responsibilities, unless such information is directly related to a bona fide occupational qualification or need, provided an employer, through a physician may request from an employee any such information which is directly related to workplace exposure to substances which may cause birth defects or constitute a hazard to an individual's reproductive system or to a fetus if the employer first informs the employee of the hazards involved in exposure to such substances;

(10) For an employer, by the employer or the employer's agent, after informing an employee, pursuant to subdivision (9) of this subsection, of a workplace exposure to substances which may cause birth defects or constitute a hazard to an employee's reproductive system or to a fetus, to fail or refuse, upon the employee's request, to take reasonable measures to protect the employee from the exposure or hazard identified, or to fail or refuse to inform the employee that the measures taken may be the subject of a complaint filed under the provisions of this chapter. Nothing in this subdivision is intended to prohibit an employer from taking reasonable measures to protect an employee from exposure to such substances. For the purpose of this subdivision, "reasonable measures" shall be those measures which are consistent with business necessity and are least disruptive of the terms and conditions of the employee's employment;

(11) For an employer, by the employer or the employer's agent, for an employment agency, by itself or its agent, or for any labor organization, by itself or its agent: (A) To request or require genetic information from an employee, person seeking employment or member, or (B) to discharge, expel or otherwise discriminate against any person on the basis of genetic information. For the purpose of this subdivision, "genetic information" means the information about genes, gene products or inherited characteristics that may derive from an individual or a family member.

(b) (1) The provisions of this section concerning age shall not apply to: (A) The termination of employment of any person with a contract of unlimited tenure at an independent institution of higher education who is mandatorily retired, on or before July 1, 1993, after having attained the age of seventy; (B) the termination of employment of any person who has attained the age of sixty-five and who, for the two years immediately preceding such termination, is employed in a bona fide executive or a high policy-making position, if such person is entitled to an immediate nonforfeitable annual retirement benefit under a pension, profit-sharing, savings or deferred compensation plan, or any combination of such plans, from such person's employer, which equals, in aggregate, at least forty-four thousand dollars; (C) the termination of employment of persons in occupations, including police work and fire-fighting, in which age is a bona fide occupational qualification; (D) the operation of any bona fide apprenticeship system or plan; or (E) the observance of the terms of a bona fide seniority system or any bona fide employee benefit plan for retirement, pensions or insurance which is not adopted for the purpose of evading said provisions, except that no such plan may excuse the failure to hire any individual and no such system or plan may require or permit the termination of employment on the basis of age. No such plan which covers less than twenty employees may reduce the group hospital, surgical or medical insurance coverage provided under the plan to any employee who has reached the age of sixty-five and is eligible for Medicare benefits or any employee's spouse who has reached age sixty-five and is eligible for Medicare benefits except to the extent such coverage is provided by Medicare. The terms of any such plan which covers twenty or more employees shall entitle any employee who has attained the age of sixty-five and any employee's spouse who has attained the age of sixty-five to group hospital, surgical or medical insurance coverage under the same conditions as any covered employee or spouse who is under the age of sixty-five.

(2) No employee retirement or pension plan may exclude any employee from membership in such plan or cease or reduce the employee's benefit accruals or allocations under such plan on the basis of age. The provisions of this subdivision shall be applicable to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 1988, except that for any collectively bargained plan this subdivision shall be applicable on the earlier of (A) January 1, 1990, or (B) the later of (i) the expiration date of the collective bargaining agreement, or (ii) January 1, 1988.

(3) The provisions of this section concerning age shall not prohibit an employer from requiring medical examinations for employees for the purpose of determining such employees' physical qualification for continued employment.

(4) Any employee who continues employment beyond the normal retirement age in the applicable retirement or pension plan shall give notice of intent to retire, in writing, to such employee's employer not less than thirty days prior to the date of such retirement.