Connecticut General Statutes
Chapter 561 - Labor Relations Act
Section 31-101. - Definitions.

When used in this chapter:

(1) “Agent” means the representative of the board who handles all investigations of complaints and violations of this chapter;
(2) “Board” means the labor relations board provided for in section 31-102;
(3) “Commissioner” means the Labor Commissioner or any representative designated by him;
(4) “Company union” means any committee, employee representation plan or association of employees which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances or terms and conditions of employment which the employer has initiated or created or whose initiation or creation he has suggested or participated in or the formulation of whose governing rules or policies or the conduct of whose management, policies or elections the employer participates in or supervises or which the employer manages, finances, controls, dominates or assists in maintaining or financing, whether by compensation to anyone for service performed in its behalf or by donating free service, equipment, materials, office or meeting space or anything else of value or by any other means;
(5) “Department” means the Labor Department;
(6) “Employee” includes, but shall not be restricted to, any individual employed by a labor organization, any individual whose employment has ceased as a consequence of, or in connection with, any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice, and who has not obtained any other regular and substantially equivalent employment, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer; but shall not include any individual employed by his parent or spouse or in the domestic service of any person in his home, any individual employed only for the duration of a labor dispute or any individual employed as an agricultural worker;
(7) “Employer” means any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, but shall not include any person engaged in farming, or any person subject to the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, unless the National Labor Relations Board has declined to assert jurisdiction over such person, or any person subject to the provisions of the Federal Railway Labor Act, or the state or any political or civil subdivision thereof or any religious agency or corporation, or any labor organization, except when acting as an employer, or any one acting as an officer or agent of such labor organization. An employer licensed by the Department of Public Health under section 19a-490 shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter with respect to all its employees except those licensed under chapters 370 and 379, unless such employer is the state or any political subdivision thereof;
(8) “Labor dispute” includes, but shall not be restricted to, any controversy between employers and employees or their representatives concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing or maintaining, or seeking to negotiate, fix, maintain or change, terms or conditions of employment;
(9) “Labor organization” means any organization which exists and is constituted for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining, or of dealing with employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or other mutual aid or protection, and which is not a company union as defined herein;
(10) “Person” includes individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, limited liability companies, trustees, receivers and legal representatives;
(11) “Representative” includes a labor organization or an individual, whether or not employed by the employer or those whom he represents;
(12) “Unfair labor practice” means only those unfair labor practices listed in section 31-105;
(13) “Supervisor” means any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requiresthe use of independent judgment, and such individuals shall be “employees” within the meaning of subdivision (6) of this section;
(14) “Professional employee” means (A) any employee engaged in work (i) predominantly intellectual and varied in character as opposed to routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work; (ii) involving the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment in its performance; (iii) of such a character that the output produced or the result accomplished cannot be standardized in relation to a given period of time; and (iv) requiring knowledge of an advanced type in a field of science or learning customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction and study in an institution of higher learning or a hospital, as distinguished from a general academic education or from an apprenticeship or from training in the performance of routine mental, manual or physical processes; or (B) any employee who (i) has completed the courses of specialized intellectual instruction and study described in clause (iv) of subparagraph (A), and (ii) is performing related work under the supervision of a professional person to qualify himself to become a professional employee as defined in subparagraph (A).
(1949 Rev., S. 7388; 1967, P.A. 497, S. 1, 2; P.A. 77-614, S. 323, 610; P.A. 93-381, S. 9, 39; P.A. 95-79, S. 115, 189; 95-257, S. 12, 21, 58.)
History: 1967 act deleted exclusion of charitable and educational agencies and corporations in definition of “employer” and added provision setting forth conditions under which employers licensed by health department are subject to provisions of chapter, and added definitions of “supervisor” and “professional employee”; P.A. 77-614 replaced health department with department of health services, effective January 1, 1979; (Revisor's note: In 1991 the lower case alphabetic Subpara. indicators in Subdiv. (14) were replaced editorially by the Revisors with upper case indicators); P.A. 93-381 replaced department of health services with department of public health and addiction services, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 95-79 redefined “person” to include limited liability companies, effective May 31, 1995; P.A. 95-257 replaced Commissioner and Department of Public Health and Addiction Services with Commissioner and Department of Public Health, effective July 1, 1995.
Cited. 142 C. 457. Definitional section does not provide exclusion for nonprofit entities. 175 C. 165. Cited. 201 C. 685.
Cited. 22 CS 31; Id., 140.