Connecticut Enacts New Workplace Standards Applicable to Warehouse Workers

00:00

24:53

Quick Hits

• Connecticut has established new workplace standards for large warehouse and distribution center employers, including requirements to provide written notice of performance quotas, maintain work speed data records for three years, and protect covered nonexempt employees from adverse action for exercising their rights under the law.
• The law applies to employers with 250 or more employees at a single Connecticut warehouse distribution center or with 1,000 or more employees across multiple such centers.
• August 1, 2026, is the deadline for providing written quota descriptions to current employees.

The new law goes into effect July 1, 2026, making Connecticut the first state in New England to enact such standards.

Tucked inside of Senate Bill 298’s sweeping provisions are new notice and recordkeeping requirements and protections applicable to certain warehouse and distribution center workers in Connecticut.

Covered Entities

An employer under the law includes any individual, or any legal or commercial entity, that directly or indirectly, at any time in the prior twelve months: (a) employs or exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions of 250 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution center in Connecticut; or (b) 1,000 or more employees at one or more warehouse distribution centers in the state.

An employee under the law includes any individual who is employed at a warehouse distribution center and who is a nonexempt employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A driver or courier traveling to or from a warehouse distribution center is not a covered employee.

Notice Requirements

Notice of quotas

Covered employers must provide each employee with a written description of each quota (defined by law as a work performance standard) to which such employee is subject, including any potential adverse employment action that may result from a failure to satisfy such quota. For current employees, this written description must be provided no later than August 1, 2026. For employees hired after August 1, 2026, such written description must be provided upon hire. The written description of each quota (and any changes to it), can be provided either directly to an employee or via e-mail.

Notice of changes to quotas

Whenever an employer makes a change to an existing quota that results in a new quota for such employee, the employer must:

• Notify the employee of such change as soon as practicable (verbally or in writing) prior to the effective date of such new quota; and
• Provide the employee with a written description of the new quota not later than two business days after the change is made.

Quotas and Work Speed

Restrictions on quota requirements

The law provides that no quota shall:

• prevent compliance with the state’s requirements concerning meal periods;
• interfere with an employee’s use of bathroom facilities, including reasonable travel time to and from the bathroom facilities;
• set a performance standard that measures an employee’s total output over an increment of time that is shorter than the employee’s work day; or
• set a performance standard that is based solely on ranking the performance of an employee in relation to the performance of other employees.

Work speed data and recordkeeping

The law requires a covered employer to establish, maintain, and preserve contemporaneous, true and accurate records of:

• each individual employee’s work speed data,
  • the aggregated work speed data for similar employees at the same warehouse distribution center, and
  • the written description of the quotas provided to each employee.

The law defines work speed data as information an employer collects, stores, analyzes, or interprets relating to an individual employee’s performance of a quota. Records unrelated to quota-based performance standards are not considered work speed data.

Applicable records must be kept for three years. Covered employers are not required to preserve such records if they do not assign or require quotas or if they do not collect, store, analyze or interpret work speed data.

Anti-Discrimination/Retaliation Protections

Covered employers cannot take any adverse action against an employee for failing to satisfy an unlawful quota, or any quota that has not been previously provided to the employee as required by the new law.

If a covered employee believes that satisfying a quota caused or will cause a violation of the lawful quota requirements, the employee may request from the covered employer:

• a written description of each quota to which the employee is subject;
• a copy of the employee’s personal work speed data for the prior ninety days; and
• a copy of the aggregated work speed data for similar employees at the same warehouse distribution center for the prior ninety days.

The law also provides that a former covered employee may make a single request from a former covered employer for:

• a written description of each quota the employee was subject to for the ninety days prior to the employee’s separation from employment,
• a copy of the employee’s personal work speed data for the ninety days prior to such employee’s separation from employment, and
• a copy of aggregated work speed data for similar employees at the same warehouse distribution center for the ninety days prior to such employee’s separation from employment with the employer.

A covered employer that receives such a request from a current or former employee must provide a written copy of the requested records not later than ten calendar days after receipt of the request. The written copy must be provided in both English and the primary language of the employee requesting such records, and for a current employee, directly to the employee or via email. For a former employee, the written copy must be provided either in person at a mutually convenient time or via a mutually convenient delivery method.

Covered employers cannot take any adverse action against any employee or former employee for making a request for records.

Enforcement and Remedies

An employee or former employee, or the attorney general on behalf of a group of employees or former employees, may file a civil action in with the Connecticut Superior Court to recover damages, civil penalties, and/or injunctive relief, based on alleged violations of this law. Attorneys’ fees and costs may also be awarded to prevailing plaintiffs.

Covered employers cannot take any adverse action against covered employees who file a civil action for violation of this law.

Key Takeaways

Employers in logistics and warehouse distribution may want to review performance quotas for compliance with the latest standards and establish proper procedures for all employees before August 1, 2026, the effective date for new notice requirements. Employers may want to provide training on quota notice requirements for human resources and managerial staff.

Employers may also want to ensure information systems can retain and aggregate employee work speed data as required by law.

Employers may want to take into account the burden-shifting analysis when an employee exercises legal rights. Under the new law, if an employer takes adverse action within ninety days of an employee engaging in protected activity, there is a rebuttable presumption that the action was unlawful. The employer must provide clear and convincing evidence that the action was for a permissible reason and not motivated by the employee’s protected activity.

With similar legislation already on the books in a handful of other states, Ogletree Deakins’ Stamford office and Workplace Safety and Health Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and provide updates on the Connecticut, Trucking & Logistics, and Workplace Safety and Health blogs as additional information becomes available.

Follow and Subscribe
LinkedIn | Instagram | Webinars | Podcasts