[Connecticut] Questions raised about external award of paid leave contract

There have been mixed reactions to Connecticut’s decision to award a contract to administer the state’s new paid family and medical leave programme to a Fortune 500 company, CT News Junkie reports.

Union officials, advocates, and two lawmakers who fought for passage of the programme in 2019 reportedly believed the state Department of Labor would have been able to handle the work internally. Instead, the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority contracted with Aflac to handle the claims work. 

The $72 million, three-year contract was announced in early August. 

The paid leave programme created a mandatory payroll deduction of 0.5 per cent for all private sector and non-unionised state employees. Workers can start making claims for the money to care for a sick family member, have a baby, or benefits for their own sick leave from January 1, 2022. 

Carlos Moreno - state director of the Connecticut Working Families, an organisation that helped lead the fight for the programme - said the programme will become less straightforward with Aflac running the claims. 

“Connecticut taxpayers expect the state's paid family medical leave programme to be reliable, transparent, and accountable to them,” Mr Moreno said. He is worried that things will not be as transparent. 

Xavier Gordon - AFSCME Local 289, who works in the Department of Labor - said that they should have been given an opportunity to administer the programme internally. 

“Selecting Aflac continues this administrations pattern of handing out expensive contracts to private companies to perform DOL functions,” Mr Gordon said. 

He added, “We believe paid family and medical leave insurance should be administered by workers who by career choice and training are subject matter experts dedicated to protecting the public interest.” 

However, Andrea Barton Reeves - head of the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority - said there were no state agencies already doing claims administration. 

“Claims administration is not a service that any state agency provides,” Ms Barton Reeves said. She added that the tight deadlines her agency needed to meet required them to find a partner to help get the money workers paid into the program out the door. 

“The statute requires that payments begin in January. So there’s this extremely short deadline, timeline in which to build a very sophisticated structure,” Ms Barton Reeves said. 

She said that Aflac already had the infrastructure in place “so that people could get their benefits on time and with the quality that they deserve.”

The company has promised to create 150 jobs in Windsor to support the programme. But Representative Robyn Porter (D-New Haven) said 150 well-paying jobs is not good enough.

“That’s always good news to have jobs coming to Connecticut, but what we’re saying is we also have DOL workers who are well equipped and subject matter experts,” Ms Porter said.  

The jobs will pay about $40,000 a year and are not contract jobs.

There have been mixed reactions to Connecticut’s decision to award a contract to administer the state’s new paid family and medical leave programme to a Fortune 500 company, CT News Junkie reports.

Union officials, advocates, and two lawmakers who fought for passage of the programme in 2019 reportedly believed the state Department of Labor would have been able to handle the work internally. Instead, the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority contracted with Aflac to handle the claims work. 

The $72 million, three-year contract was announced in early August. 

The paid leave programme created a mandatory payroll deduction of 0.5 per cent for all private sector and non-unionised state employees. Workers can start making claims for the money to care for a sick family member, have a baby, or benefits for their own sick leave from January 1, 2022. 

Carlos Moreno - state director of the Connecticut Working Families, an organisation that helped lead the fight for the programme - said the programme will become less straightforward with Aflac running the claims. 

“Connecticut taxpayers expect the state's paid family medical leave programme to be reliable, transparent, and accountable to them,” Mr Moreno said. He is worried that things will not be as transparent. 

Xavier Gordon - AFSCME Local 289, who works in the Department of Labor - said that they should have been given an opportunity to administer the programme internally. 

“Selecting Aflac continues this administrations pattern of handing out expensive contracts to private companies to perform DOL functions,” Mr Gordon said. 

He added, “We believe paid family and medical leave insurance should be administered by workers who by career choice and training are subject matter experts dedicated to protecting the public interest.” 

However, Andrea Barton Reeves - head of the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority - said there were no state agencies already doing claims administration. 

“Claims administration is not a service that any state agency provides,” Ms Barton Reeves said. She added that the tight deadlines her agency needed to meet required them to find a partner to help get the money workers paid into the program out the door. 

“The statute requires that payments begin in January. So there’s this extremely short deadline, timeline in which to build a very sophisticated structure,” Ms Barton Reeves said. 

She said that Aflac already had the infrastructure in place “so that people could get their benefits on time and with the quality that they deserve.”

The company has promised to create 150 jobs in Windsor to support the programme. But Representative Robyn Porter (D-New Haven) said 150 well-paying jobs is not good enough.

“That’s always good news to have jobs coming to Connecticut, but what we’re saying is we also have DOL workers who are well equipped and subject matter experts,” Ms Porter said.  

The jobs will pay about $40,000 a year and are not contract jobs.