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Ex. DUT-CT-004 Standing duty Primary source read

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-49 (care required of a master for his servant's safety) and § 31-40v (safety and health committees)

Chapter 557, Employment Regulation, Part I: § 31-49, Care required of a master for his servant's safety

Connecticut General Assembly (Conn. Gen. Stat. chapter 557, Employment Regulation) · Connecticut (State)

The COVID Project

The record

Jurisdiction
Connecticut
Level
State
Authority
1949 Rev., S. 7367 (codification of the common-law duty of the master); § 31-40v: P.A. 89-? as compiled (safety and health committees)
Issued
2021-01-01 Jan. 1, 2021
Effective
standing; text in force throughout March 2020 to September 2021 (Wayback capture of January 1, 2021) (read as 2021-01-01)
End
standing (read as 2021-09-30)
In force
Standing since Jan. 1, 2021 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
Quarters
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
Limitation types
Workplace rulesStanding duty
Addressees
  • employers (every private and public employer in the State)
Character
workplace duty
Collection
Standing duties: Connecticut DUT-CT

Operative words

It shall be the duty of the master to exercise reasonable care to provide for his servant a reasonably safe place in which to work, reasonably safe appliances and instrumentalities for his work and fit and competent persons as his colaborers and to exercise reasonable care in the appointment or designation of a vice-principal...

Penalty

Civil liability in negligence for breach of the statutory duty (the statute codifies the common-law duty; the annotation records that no action lies under the section where the case is within the Workers' Compensation Act, 196 Conn. 529); the Workers' Compensation Act supplies the exclusive remedy for compensable injury and occupational disease, and EO 7JJJ (Ex. AGY-ST-UTILITIES-HOUSING-AG-071) created a rebuttable presumption that COVID-19 contracted by an employee who worked outside the home between March 10 and May 20, 2020 arose out of the employment

What it required

Every Connecticut employer ('the master') to exercise reasonable care to provide every employee a reasonably safe place in which to work, a duty that in a declared pandemic emergency was measured by the protective measures the State's orders, the DECD rules and the public-health guidance they incorporated prescribed; and every employer of twenty-five or more employees to 'administer a safety and health committee' (§ 31-40v(a)).

Retrieval note

The whole chapter as compiled on January 1, 2021 (contemporaneous). § 31-49 is the State's general workplace-safety duty binding private employers, who are outside the CONN-OSHA Act (Ex. DUT-CT-005, § 31-367(d)) and inside federal OSHA (Ex. DUT-CT-009). § 31-40v(a): 'each employer of twenty-five or more employees in this state, including the state and any political subdivision of the state, and each employer whose rate of work related injury and illness exceeds the average incidence rate of all industries in this state, shall administer a safety and health committee.' The § 31-40v authority citation in the record is left generic; the section's history line is in the exhibit.