House Passes Job Postings Bill Opening Employers to More Claims

The state House has passed a bill allowing unemployed people to bring civil claims against businesses if the individuals believe–with or without evidence–that the employers passed them over for jobs just because they are unemployed.

If enacted, it would be the first law in the state allowing claimants to ascribe motivations to businesses and then seek to financially punish employers based on those guesses.  

HB 5274, identical to a bill originally proposed by the governor, survived a lengthy debate in the House of Representatives as well as an attempt by Republicans to eliminate the text of the bill allowing those subjective and punitive claims.     

While several other states prohibit the posting of job advertisements that say “the unemployed need not apply”—and Connecticut businesses support that kind of ban–no other state gives unemployed individuals the option to sue a prospective employer based on their beliefs about why they were not hired.

Why? Because for every person hired by a business, there could be dozens or scores of upset applicants who might try to exact revenge on that business–with no evidence required.

If HB 5274 passes and is signed by the governor, Connecticut will have a very difficult time encouraging businesses to create jobs here–especially when each person hired creates an exponential risk that the business will be forced to defend itself against baseless claims by rejected candidates.      

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Gjede at 860.244.1931 | eric.gjede@cbia.com | @egjede