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Senate panel hears competing views on assistant attorney general unionization, workers’ compensation and incarcerated-worker wages
Summary
The Senate committee heard testimony on several labor proposals, including a measure to allow assistant attorneys general to unionize and changes to workers’ compensation rules, and received conflicting testimony over costs and feasibility.
Several labor-related proposals were discussed in the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs and reported to the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee by legislative intern Helen R. Graves on Feb. 28.
One proposal would allow assistant attorneys general to organize in collective bargaining; Todd DeLoz, director of policy and legislative affairs at the attorney general’s office, testified and said there is an existing pay-parity framework that, in his view, reduces the need for collective bargaining and raised potential conflict-of-interest concerns because attorneys sometimes represent matters involving unions and employers.
Committee testimony also covered bills that would change workers’ compensation and payment rules on state construction projects. Kelly Massacott of the Vermont Association of Justice supported including the market value of employer-provided health insurance in workers’ compensation calculations, argued for employee choice in selecting a case manager and recommended translation services paid by carriers. Massacott also supported a scalable late-payment penalty scheme to deter repeated late payments.
Megan Sullivan of the LaMoche Group Commerce provided opposing testimony, saying including the market value of health insurance could be infeasible for employers and might disincentivize employers from offering workplace coverage.
Another provision discussed would increase wages for incarcerated individuals who do paid work; the transcript reported department testimony from Kristin Calver of the Department of Corrections that raising pay would increase costs for the department by about $8,000,000 per year, not including employer-side taxes and workers’ compensation costs. Senator Ram Hinsdale supported the incarcerated-wage increase in committee discussion, according to the intern’s summary.
Why it matters: these proposals would change compensation calculations, employer costs and collective-bargaining rules for state employees and contractors, with material fiscal and operational implications for state agencies, employers and impacted workers.
