ACTION ALERT! Maine’s business community strongly opposes LD 553

Urgent action is needed to block passage of employment-at-will proposal

On Friday, May 26, members of the Joint Standing Committee on Labor and Housing reconsidered their votes on LD 553, An Act to End At-Will Employment, a bill sponsored by Rep. Michael Sylvester (D-Portland).

Please contact your legislators today!

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There now are TWO “ought to pass” recommendations coming out of the Labor committee:

• One is essentially the original “ought to pass” version of the bill, with some clarification around an exemption to the law concerning seasonal layoffs. In addition, it will require every employer with more than five employees to implement and adopt a written employee personnel policy / handbook. This will cost each business thousands of extra dollars in the form of legal assistance. Our coalition remains strongly opposed to this proposal.
  
• The second “ought to pass” recommendation requires a study of the impact of employment-at-will on employers and employees and charges the stakeholder group with making recommendations on the impact of eliminating employment-at-will in Maine. Our coalition remains strongly opposed to this proposal as well.

All five Republicans on the committee voted “ought not to pass.” Our coalition supports ONLY the ought not to pass motion on LD 553.
 
We are urging individual Maine employers to contact their legislators as soon as possible to voice their opposition to any version of LD 553. The Maine Legislature could vote on LD 553 as soon as Wednesday, June 2 when legislators are scheduled to reconvene.
 
Please contact your legislators and urge them to vote ‘NO’ on LD 553!
 
The following organizations are asking you to contact your legislators and urge their opposition to LD 553: Associated Builders & Contractors (Maine Chapter); Associated General Contractors of Maine; American Council of Engineering Companies (Maine Chapter); Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce; Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce; Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce; Franklin County Chamber of Commerce; Hospitality Maine; Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce; Maine Aggregate Association; Maine Association of Insurance Companies; Maine Auto Dealers Association; Maine Bankers Association; Maine Beer & Wine Distributors Association; Maine Better Transportation Association; Maine Beverage Association; Maine Campground Owners Association; Maine Dental Association; Maine Energy Marketers Association; Maine Forest Products Council; Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association; Maine Hospital Association; Maine Insurance Agents Association; Maine Jobs Council; Maine Motor Transport Association; Maine Pellet Fuels Association; Maine Society of Land Surveyors; Maine Sporting Camp Association; Maine Staffing Association; Maine State Chamber of Commerce; Maine State Golf Association; Maine Tourism Association; Maine Youth Camp Association; Manufacturers Association of Maine; Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce; NFIB Maine; Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce; Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce; Professional Logging Contractors of Maine; Retail Association of Maine; Retail Lumber Dealers Association of Maine; Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce; Ski Maine Association; Skowhegan Regional Chamber of Commerce; and, Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber.

LD 553 would prohibit an employer with five or more employees from terminating the employment of an employee without just cause. The bill specifies an employer may – with limited exceptions – terminate an employee only after applying a written three-step progressive discipline policy, documenting each step in writing and providing written notice of termination in accordance with certain requirements. LD 553 also includes a private right for aggrieved employees to sue employers. The bill also eliminates references to “at-will employment” in current law.

In addition to information in the recent State Policy Update that the Maine State Chamber sent to its members last week, we have prepared this SAMPLE LETTER for you, using the following talking points.
 
Why Maine’s Business Community Strongly Opposes LD 553:

LD 553 proposes a seismic shift in decades of employment policy and law in Maine – restructuring Maine’s current at-will system – a system with no widespread reports of abuse regarding employment discharges to our knowledge.

LD 553 would impose a costly, burdensome, complicated, and litigious discipline and termination process for all but Maine’s smallest employers – the types of provisions that are part of job-security collective bargaining contracts negotiated between management and labor, where workers are unionized.

Even LD 553’s proposed amendment provides little to no clarity on critical issues and would open the door to increased litigation against employers. “Pay-to-settle” could become the new lament of employers.

LD 553 would restrict employers’ broad latitude in managing their organizations.

The present state of the law is that courts may not second-guess an employer’s legitimate business decisions regarding hiring and discharge of employees. This law would flip that presumption on its head. Courts would routinely be tasked with assessing business decisions and adjudicating terminations.

A variety of protections that limit an employer’s right to discharge already exists for employees under federal and Maine anti-discrimination laws. LD 553 is not designed to prevent discrimination; LD 553 is designed to provide job security for all workers and throw hurdles in front of an employer’s ability to effectively manage a workforce.

Forty-eight other states follow the at-will employment doctrine, but LD 553 would make Maine an outlier. LD 553 is a solution looking for a problem and begs more questions than it answers. It would dramatically increase the cost of doing business in Maine and friction between employers and employees.

Maine’s economic future depends on a healthy environment for business investment and job creation. In December 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Governor’s 10-year Strategic Plan was released outlining plans to create a stronger economy. More recently, the Governor’s Economic Recovery Committee released its report on recovering from setbacks caused by the coronavirus pandemic. However, lobsters, mountains, lakes, coastline beauty and quality of life will not be strong enough to overcome the hostile environment toward jobs that LD 553 would create.

Please contact your legislators and urge them to vote ‘no’ on LD 553!