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For Immediate Release
May 20, 2009
SENATE SENDS ANTI-EMPLOYER MESSAGE—STRIKES BLOW TO FREE SPEECH IN THE WORKPLACE
Business community urging state House to reject captive audience bill
The state Senate today approved a bill that strictly limits employees’ communication with the people who can provide the most direct and reliable source of information about their jobs and employee benefits—their employers.
"SB-365, the captive audience bill, sets a bad precedent for employers who need to communicate important information to their employees,” said Joseph F. Brennan, CBIA senior vice president of public policy. “Topics that could be banned include issues employees are worried about and need to know about, including the health of their companies and the status of their jobs and benefits.”
The bill forbids employers from communicating with their employees at required company meetings about a variety of topics considered “political” by the legislature. These could include matters covered by a collective bargaining agreement such as wages, employee benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment, as well as government operations and politics.
"In this time of great uncertainty, employers must be able to speak freely about issues affecting the workplace,” said Brennan. “Limiting employers’ right to talk openly with their employees is yet another signal that Connecticut is unfriendly to businesses. That’s a very risky message to send when many companies are struggling to stay open and hold onto jobs here.”
The bill now goes to the state House. The business community is urging state representatives to reject SB-365 because it will hurt the very people it is supposed to help and block employees from hearing about the issues they care most about.
"If legislators care about retaining and creating jobs in Connecticut, they will reject bills like this that have a decided anti-employer bias. The public cares about the economy and jobs, not about legislation like this,” said Brennan.
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CBIA is the state’s largest business organization, with 10,000 members.
For more information contact Nancy Andrews, CBIA media relations manager, at 860-244-1957 or andrewsn@cbia.com.
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