In today’s specialized workplace, and at very small businesses, the obstacles would be enormous
News Release from NFIB in Connecticut:
HARTFORD Feb. 14, 2019 – NFIB, the leading small business association in Connecticut with thousands of members across the state, opposes Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 5003 that drastically expand the state’s Paid Family Leave law. The bills get a hearing today.
“Requiring employers of every size to comply with a law expanding employee leave to 12 weeks under a broad set of circumstances is unfair to small businesses and puts the owner in a terrible predicament where the required work may not be able to be completed,” said Andrew Markowski, state director of NFIB in Connecticut. “It’s possible a larger corporation or firms with many employees can fill the void, especially when a couple of people take leave at the same time, but this will become an impossible circumstance for most small businesses.”
The House and Senate proposals impact every size of business and go way beyond the provisions in current state and federal statutes which exempted smaller businesses due to the hardships created. Wendy Traub, owner of Hemlock Directional Boring in Torrington will testify against the measures at today’s hearing.
“Each of our eight employees, including myself and my husband, have specific jobs, and some require specialized training and government certifications,” said Traub. “It’s not like someone can just fill the void and pick up a horizontal drill or properly pump mud. We care for our employees and accommodate it when they need leave, but my husband works day and night to fill in when they are away. This extreme cookie-cutter mandate will severely impact smaller businesses like ours.”
A veterinarian, Chip Beckett, owner of Beckett and Associates Veterinary Services in Glastonbury, explains that the expanded leave proposals might prevent his office from performing animal surgeries.
“It takes one person to provide anesthesia to the dog or cat, the vet to operate, and another trained employee to assist,” said Beckett. “Depending on the number of people on leave under these proposals, we might not be able to remove a cancerous tumor or even spay a dog. I won’t be able to continue offering dependable service and day and night hours to our pet-loving customers.”
Beckett and Traub also say that temporary employees with the proper skills to cover their staff are impossible to find, and if they hire a new employee, that would be unfair because they cannot keep them beyond the time when the existing employee returns to work.
