Business leaders refute ‘captive audience,’ other harmful bills

(March 14, 2006) As the legislature’s Labor Committee was approving several anti-business bills last week, their actions were noted by CBIA members in meetings with lawmakers in Wethersfield (at Kell Strom Tools), North Haven (at Petra Construction) and East Lyme (at Flanders Fish Market). 

Legislators attending the CBIA Breakfast Meetings got clear, firsthand perspectives from the business leaders on how the committee’s bills would affect their companies.

For example, business leaders said the “captive audience” bill approved last week is impractical to implement in the workplace, detrimental to employees’ interests, and based on a false assumption that Connecticut companies are bad and have ill intentions toward their employees, said the business leaders. 

Employers said they are doing the best they can for their employees and that proposals such as “captive audience,” the “pay or play” health care tax and repeals of workers’ comp reforms will do little to help — and will likely harm — employees in Connecticut. 

In many cases, said business leaders, existing state and federal laws already cover many of the concerns legislators are trying to address, and several of the current proposals in the legislature are “using a sledge hammer to kill a fly.”

There will be other opportunities to attend meetings in your area, including:

• Tuesday, April 4 -- Bridgeport

For more information, contact CBIA's Elizabeth Sawyer at 860-244-1900 or sawyere@cbia.com.