Insights

On Friday, March 20, Connecticut Governor Lamont issued Executive Order 7H, effective on March 23, directing that all businesses and not-for-profit entities in the State of Connecticut, employ, to the maximum extent possible, any telecommuting or work from home procedures that they can safely utilize. Under the Executive Order, non-essential business or not-for-profit entities are required to reduce their in-person workforces at any workplace locations by 100 percent no later than March 23 at 8:00 p.m.

No later than 8:00 p.m. on March 22, the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) is required by the Executive Order to issue guidance about which businesses are essential. Businesses not operating in categories initially identified as essential by the Executive Order or initial DECD guidance may be deemed essential after requesting an opinion from DECD, which will review and grant such request, should it determine that "it is in the best interest of the state to have the workforce continue at full capacity to properly respond to this emergency." Pending DECD's guidance, Day Pitney attorneys are studying precedent and preparing to promptly submit client applications to DECD for designation as an "essential" business or seek other relief for purposes of gaining full or partial exemption from the in-person restrictions of Executive Order 7H, as appropriate.

On its face, Executive Order 7H offers a non-exclusive list of types of business that will be deemed essential, as follows:

Critical Infrastructure Sectors comprising:

Also, companies and institutions involved in the research and development, manufacture, distribution, warehousing, and supplying of:

Essential infrastructure, including:

Manufacturing, including:

The defense industrial base, including:

Essential retail, including:

Essential services, including:

Day Pitney anticipates issuing another alert on this subject promptly after reviewing DECD's guidance, which is expected to be published by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 22.

For your information, on March 20, New York's Governor Cuomo issued a similarly worded Executive Order 202.8 which becomes effective March 22. Further, "Guidance for Determining Whether a Business Enterprise is Subject to a Workforce Reduction on Executive Order 202.6" was published by the New York State Department of Economic Development. The New York DED guidance includes a form to submit a Request for Designation as an Essential Business for Purposes of Executive Order 202.6. Given the close coordination between the governors of Connecticut and New York on COVID-19 matters, we anticipate that the Connecticut DECD guidance and process for requesting exemption will look very similar to the New York guidance and process.