Home Health & Hospice Week

State legislation to ban non-compete and non-solicitation clauses in home care workers’ contracts appears to be headed into law in Connecticut.

Home care industry members have opposed the changes, which were proposed earlier this year and recently rolled into state budget legislation that awaits the governor’s signature, reports the Hartford Courant newspaper.

Supporters of the changes say the clauses, which prohibit workers from going to work for competitors and from taking their clients with them, suppress workers’ wages and job opportu­nities. Opponents from the home care industry and elsewhere say the changes would allow workers to poach clients and benefit themselves while destabi­lizing their clients’ environment.

“We provide the schedule, the sick time, insurance, unemployment and workmen’s compensations. That’s what’s being lost by having this bill come through,” Bright Star Home Care exec Ted Clark said in a press conference, according to the Courant.