HB 5285 AAC STATE EMPLOYEES AND VIOLENCE AND BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE Now DEAD!
Kathy
On March 26, the Gov't Administrations and Elections Committee met to
consider the HB 5285. The bill passed the Labor Committee unanimously
and was sent to the GAE Committee for further action.
HB 5285 AAC STATE EMPLOYEES AND VIOLENCE AND BULLYING IN THE WORKPLACE
was on GAE’s agenda for their final meeting, but it along with 3 other
bills were not acted on. They didn’t run out of time. The chairs just
didn’t call it, which means that it is dead at this time. It is
probably unlikely to be amended to another bill.
The Chairs of GAE need to hear from us. They let this die.
Their office is
Government Administrations and Elections Committee
Room 2200, Legislative Office Building
Hartford, CT 06106
Phone: 860-240-0480
S14 - Slossberg, Gayle S. Co-Chair Slos...@senatedems.ct.gov
036 - Spallone, James Field Co-Chair James.S...@cga.ct.gov
S12 - Meyer, Edward Vice Chair
Me...@senatedems.ct.gov
030 - Aresimowicz, Joe
Joe.Are...@cga.ct.gov
The bill is almost certainly dead, but if we can let the legislators
know that we are unhappy.
Thanks again for all your activities and help in trying to end
legalized harassment and abusive conduct in the workplace.
Kathy Hermes
http://ctbullybusters.blogspot.com
Kathy
My email to the GAE Committee chairs and vice chairs:
Dear Ms. Slossberg, Mr. Spallone, Mr. Meyer and Mr. Aresimowicz:
I am writing on behalf of my volunteer organization, Connecticut
Healthy Workplace Advocates, to express both my personal and our
collective dismay that HB 5285 was allowed to die in your committee. I
am a state employee who became involved with advocating for legal
protections from workplace bullying when my friend, a federal GS-13
employee, committed suicide as a result of it in 2005. Although I was
unable to gather any statistics on its prevalence from the federal
government, because like the state of Connecticut it keeps no
statistics about this entirely legal form of harassment, I did learn
from research done by the Workplace Bullying Institute that 37% of
workers have been bullied at work.
Since I began my advocacy in 2006 for a Healthy Workplace Bill in
Connecticut (Senator Prague, Rep. Ryan and the members of the Labor
and Public Employees Committee put one forward as SB 60 in 2008), I
have been contacted by numerous state employees who believe they are
enduring abusive conduct and feel they can get no redress. The abuse
they endure is not defined under state laws regarding workplace
violence or on protected class-based discrimination. This bill, HB
5285, was a simple matter of reporting complaints of abusive conduct
by state employees. Such a bill could not have had much fiscal impact
on the state, if any. CSU-AAUP and the AFL-CIO endorsed this bill.
Workplace bullying is a very problem. The Labor Committee recognizes
this and it unanimously put forward this bill. Workplace Bullying will
not disappear by pretending it doesn't exist. You can refuse to count
it, but that doesn't mean it will remain invisible. Connecticut had a
chance to lead with this bill and instead your committee chose to put
it off. I ask respectfully that you reconsider your decision not to
discuss the bill; if that cannot be done, I ask respectfully that the
bill be allowed as amendment to a related bill.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Katherine A. Hermes, J.D., Ph.D.
Volunteer Coordinator
Connecticut Healthy Workplace Advocates
http://groups.google.com/group/connecticut-bullybusters
http://ctbullybusters.blogspot.com
"The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution
of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?"
Dorothy Day
Linda Coollick
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