A Message from our Chairman | |
Featured New Member: Brian Gibbons Homeless Outreach | |
Mission: To locate, engage, and support the homeless and those at risk of homelessness in the Greater Waterbury area in an effort to make appropriate referrals that lead to affordable and safe housing. We are a group of compassionate, educated, and devoted professionals working to prevent and end homelessness in the Greater Waterbury area.
Our team regularly visits homeless campsites, factories, and abandoned buildings several times a week and even in the bitter cold and snowy days of the winter months. We provide food, warm clothing, hygiene products, camping equipment, and most importantly, HOPE.
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270 Church Street, Floor 2
Naugatuck CT 06770
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Recap: November 13 Breakfast with Mayor Pete Hess | |
Thank You to our Naugatuck Members Who Renewed in September & October | |
Carlson Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Coldwell Banker Realty 2000
Creative Awnings & Structures LLC.
Ed's Do It Best Hardware
Goldenrod Corporation
SERVPRO of Shelton/Naugatuck
The Club Health & Fitness
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Submit Your News and Social Media Content | |
Do you have upcoming events, company news, specials, or other-related information you'd like the Chamber to promote in our next Chamber Member newsletter or on one of our many social media platforms? You can submit your content by emailing Communications Director David Huck. Leverage the Chamber and allow us to spread your message to thousands of individuals. | |
United Way of Naugatuck and Beacon Falls & Naugatuck YMCA: Elf Holiday Project | |
The United Way of Naugatuck and Beacon Falls and the Naugatuck YMCA would like to thank all of you for the past support with our Annual Elf Project. The Elf Project supports families in our community to provide an unforgettable holiday. We are reaching out to you this Holiday season to assist us one more time as a Sponsor.
An Elf Sponsor adopts a family who has fallen on hard times and are unable to provide the extras for this holiday season. This also includes basic needs gifts that will assist them throughout the year.
The families you would sponsor do not receive holiday assistance from any other sources and they are residents of Naugatuck and Beacon Falls. They also must be referred by the one of the following organizations: Connecticut Partnership for Children, Naugatuck Youth Services, Naugatuck YMCA, Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury, Naugatuck Public Schools, and Wellmore or any qualified social service agency.
Sponsors are asked to provide: a holiday dinner, clothing (coats, hats, mittens, sweaters etc.) as well as toys and games for the children in each family.
Once the families have been identified, we will contact you with a wish list. It is our hope that you and your employees will be able to fulfill their requests. We will provide grocery lists for the dinner along with potential age appropriate toys/clothing for the family.
Our goal is to provide support to 20 families this holiday season. If you and your company would like to participate please contact Lisa at 203-729-1564 or info@unitedwaynaugatuck.org or Tammi at 293-729-9622 or tlaudate@naugatuckymca.com by November 20, 2024.
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Hiring & Training Programs Available | |
The Northwest Construction Careers Initiative
NCCI — The Northwest Construction Careers Initiative — offers Northwest Connecticut residents the opportunity to pursue a career in the construction and building trades. Job training and employment possibilities include:
- OSHA 10, OSHA 30, and Hazwoper certifications
- CORE Curriculum, which includes HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical
Orientation sessions are held each Thursday at 249 Thomaston Avenue in Waterbury, CT beginning at 10AM. You do not need to RSVP to attend, but you will need to be on time to participate.
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Healthcare training program
The NRWIB is currently offering training opportunities in the following fields:
- Patient Care Technician
- Central Sterile Processing
- Emergency Medical Technician
- Certified Nurse’s Aide
- Community Health Worker
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CT WHISP Program
Connecticut Workforce & High-Tech Industry Skills Partnership (CTWhisp) Program offers a variety of IT career training at schools such as Naugatuck Valley Community College and Patrick’s Academy.
Naugatuck Valley Community College in partnership with the Northwest Regional Workforce Investment Board is offering grant-funded, short-term (15 weeks), IT course clusters aligned with industry certifications and supportive services. Clusters include Networking, Programming, Systems, Software and Project Management. Each IT cluster has been mapped to Microsoft and/or CompTIA certifications. The course clusters are offered free of charge to eligible CTWHISP participants. Additional services include enrollment assistance, academic advising, and employment services. In addition to gaining skills and stackable credentials, participants at NVCC will earn between 9-12 college credits that may be used towards a degree.
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HR Corner: Recent Agency Guidance on Common Employment Practices | |
Non-Compete Agreements & Stay-or-Pay Provisions
As previously reported, a federal judge recently judge struck down the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) proposed rule banning non-compete agreements and blocked its enforcement on a national basis. That ruling, which has been appealed to the Fifth Circuit, has not deterred the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which continues to take the position that non-compete agreements are unlawful under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memorandum on May 30, 2023 to all NLRB field offices setting forth her position that “the proffer, maintenance, and enforcement” of non-compete agreements violates the NLRA “except in limited circumstances.” GC Abruzzo explained that such provisions unlawfully chill employees from engaging in the following types of protected activity: (1) threatening to resign to secure better working conditions; (2) carrying out concerted threats to resign or otherwise concertedly resigning to secure improved working conditions; (3) concertedly seeking or accepting employment with a competitor to gain better working conditions; (4) soliciting co-workers to work for a competitor as part of a broader course of protected concerted activity; and (5) seeking employment, at least in part, to specifically engage in protected activity such as union organizing.
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GC Abruzzo also issued a memorandum on October 7, 2024 setting forth her position that certain “stay or pay” provisions violate Section 7 unless they are narrowly tailored to minimize infringement on the employee’s rights. “Stay-or-pay” provisions require employees to repay their employer if their employment ends—whether voluntarily or involuntarily—within a specified timeframe. These provisions are commonly included in tuition reimbursement agreements, training repayment agreements, sign-on bonuses and retention bonuses.
GC Abruzzo argues that stay-or-pay provisions, like non-compete agreements, “both restrict employee mobility, by making resigning from employment financially difficult or untenable, and increase employee fear of termination for engaging in activity protected by the Act.” GC Abruzzo went on to state that only provisions that seek to recoup the cost of optional benefits bestowed on employees and meet other requirements are legally permissible.
GC Abruzzo’s October 7th memorandum sets forth significant “make-whole” remedies for employees who are forced to sign unlawful non-compete or “stay-or-pay” agreements. These include, among other things, the difference in pay between what an employee earned at the employer and what they would have earned elsewhere, lost wages if an employee was out of work for longer than they otherwise would have been, or compensation for any costs the employee incurred in complying with an unlawful agreement, such as relocation or job training expenses.
Note that the GC’s memoranda do not apply to employees that are not covered under the NLRA, such as supervisory and managerial employees.
Use of Technology to Track or Evaluate Workers
Many employers are aware that they typically must follow a detailed process under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) if they hire a third-party to conduct background checks on job applicants. For example, employers must provide job applicants notice that they intend to procure a “consumer report”, obtain written permission from the job applicant before obtaining the report, and meet additional notice requirements if they intend to take any adverse action based on the report.
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is now cautioning employers that they must comply with the FCRA if they make employment decisions based on tracking technology and artificial intelligence that uses third party information to generate a “score” or predict behavior about an employee. The CFPB noted that some employers “use third parties to monitor workers’ sales interactions, to track workers’ driving habits, to measure the time that workers take to complete tasks, to record the number of messages workers send and the quantity and duration of meetings they attend, and to calculate workers’ time spent off-task through documenting their web browsing, taking screenshots of computers, and measuring keystroke frequency.” Employers who use such third-party information should evaluate whether they must comply with the FCRA.
This information is for educational purposes only, to provide general information and a general understanding of the law. It does not constitute legal advice and does not establish any attorney-client relationship.
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