2023 Connecticut General Statutes › Title 31 - Labor › Chapter 557 - Employment Regulation › Section 31-57aa. - Relocation of call center to foreign country. Notice to commissioner. Penalty. Annual list. Ineligibility for state financial support. State contracts.

(a) For purposes of this section:
(1) “Call center” means a facility or other operation through which employees receive telephone calls or electronic communication for the purpose of providing customer assistance or other customer service;
(2) “Employer” means a business entity that employs (A) fifty or more employees, excluding part-time employees; or (B) fifty or more employees that in the aggregate work at least fifteen hundred hours per week, excluding overtime hours, for the purpose of staffing a call center;
(3) “Part-time employee” means an employee who is employed for an average of fewer than twenty hours per week or who has been employed for fewer than six of the twelve months preceding the date on which notice is required under this section; and
(4) “Commissioner” means the Labor Commissioner.
(b) A call center employer that intends to relocate a call center, or one or more facilities or operating units within a call center comprising not less than thirty per cent of the call center's or operating unit's total call volume, when compared to the previous twelve-month average call volume of operations or substantially similar operations, from this state to a foreign country shall notify the commissioner at least one hundred days prior to such relocation.
(c) A call center employer that violates subsection (b) of this section shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars for each day of such violation, except that the commissioner may reduce such amount for just cause shown.
(d) The commissioner shall compile an annual list of each call center employer that relocated a call center, or one or more facilities or operating units within a call center comprising at least thirty per cent of the call center's total volume of operations, from this state to a foreign country. The commissioner shall make such list available to the public and shall prominently display a link to such list on the Labor Department's Internet web site.
(e) Except as provided in subsection (g) of this section and notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes, a call center employer on the annual list compiled under subsection (d) of this section shall be ineligible for any direct or indirect state grants, state guaranteed loans, state tax benefits or other state financial support for a period of five years from the date such list is published.
(f) Except as provided in subsection (g) of this section and notwithstanding any other provision of the general statutes, a call center employer on the annual list compiled under subsection (d) of this section shall remit the unamortized value of any state grant, guaranteed loan, state tax benefit or other state financial support such call center employer has received in the five-year period prior to the date such call center was placed on such list. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prevent an employer from receiving any grant to provide training or other employment assistance to individuals who are selected as being in particular need of training or other employment assistance due to the transfer or relocation of the employer's call center, facility or operating units.
(g) The commissioner, in consultation with the appropriate agency providing a loan or grant, may waive the ineligibility for state financial support under subsection (e) of this section and the remittance requirement under subsection (f) of this section if the employer demonstrates that such ineligibility and requirement would: (1) Threaten state or national security, (2) result in substantial job loss in this state, or (3) harm the environment.
(h) The department head of each state agency shall ensure that for all new contracts or new agreements entered into on and after October 1, 2021, all state business-related call center and customer service work is performed by state contractors or other agents or subcontractors entirely within this state, except that, if any such contractor, other agent or subcontractor performs work outside this state and adds customer service employees who will perform work pursuant to such new contracts or agreements, such new employees shall immediately be employed within this state. Businesses subject to a contract or agreement agreed to prior to October 1, 2021, with terms extending beyond October 1, 2023, shall be subject to the provisions of this subsection if the contract or agreement is renewed.
(i) No provision of this section shall be construed to permit withholding or denial of payments, compensation or benefits under any other provision of the general statutes, including, but not limited to, state unemployment compensation, disability payments or worker retraining or readjustment funds, to workers employed by employers that relocate from this state to a foreign country.
(j) Nothing in this section shall be construed as creating a private cause of action against an employer who has violated, or is alleged to have violated, any provision of this section.
(June Sp. Sess. P.A. 21-2, S. 6.)