Ahead of CT paid family leave program, this CT company adopts its own

by Matt Pilon, Hartford Business Journal

Manchester-based engineering firm Fuss & O’Neill just became a more attractive place to work.

The 320-employee firm, with offices throughout New England, said it’s expanding its employee benefits offerings come Jan. 1, to include paid family leave and related transitional return-to-work programs.

It’s also opening up health and welfare benefits (including being able to roll over 22 sick days into a new year) to its part-time workers for the first time.

The move, aimed at retaining and attracting talent, comes two years before Connecticut intends to launch its own paid family leave program, as enacted earlier this year by the legislature.

The firm follows in the footsteps of Farmington-based machine tool maker TRUMPF Inc., which boosted its parental and family leave benefits last year.

“The expansion of benefits for working caregivers reflect the core values of our company,” Fuss & O’Neill CEO Kevin Grigg said in a statement. “We believe that employees’ lives outside of work are just as important as their working lives. These benefits create a more flexible work environment that enhances our corporate culture to be more inclusive and flexible and will help attract and retain outstanding talent.”

Fuss & O’Neill CEO Kevin Grigg has implemented paid family leave and transitional return-to-work programs at the firm.

Grigg is one of 24 members appointed to Gov. Ned Lamont’s newly re-named Governor’s Workforce Council, which seeks to improve alignment between the education and private sectors.

He was also awarded an HBJ C-Suite Award in 2018. In his profile, Grigg told HBJ he wanted the public to be more aware of his “under the radar” firm.

While Fuss & O’Neill has paid for disability insurance policies for its employees that can be used to collect 60 percent of normal pay after a pregnancy, its new policy will mean full pay for up to six weeks for parental leave.

The company said it expects its workers to use the state-created paid leave program once it is up and running.

In Connecticut’s program, a new payroll tax on workers — including Fuss & O’Neill’s Connecticut-based staff — will start in Jan. 2021, with benefits becoming available a year later.

The state program is expected to launch with a benefit maximum of $780 per week, which would be less than 100 percent for any worker earning more than $40,560 (without factoring in state and federal income taxes). The benefit could last as long as 12 weeks per year.

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