This Act implements a recommendation from the December 31, 2023, Report of the Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee (RHBAS). Under this Act, the State must continue to offer eligible pensioners first employed by the State as a regular officer or employee (first employed) before January 1, 2025, a plan that is comparable to the current Special Medicfill Medicare Supplement plan. However, for eligible pensioners first employed on or after January 1, 2025, the State may offer different Medicare supplement plans that are not high deductible plans. This Act differs from the RHBAS recommendation because it does not limit the plan for eligible pensioners first employed on or after January 1, 2025, to plans that are comparable to the current Medicare supplement Plan G and Plan L. This difference is because under this Act, the State will not be able to offer a different Medicare supplement plan to any eligible pensioners until January 1, 2040, and details about the Medicare supplement plans that will be available at that time is unknown. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual and to align with related legislation.
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This Act establishes employment protections for certain service employees during changes of ownership by requiring all of the following: 1. Notice to affected service employees at covered locations at least 15 days before a service contract is terminated, services are contracted out, or the property where they are employed is sold or transferred. This notice must state the event triggering the notice, information about the new awardee, purchaser, or transferee, and the service employee’s rights under this Act. 2. The successor employer must retain all affected service employees at a covered location for a 90-day transition period. The successor employer may not reduce any affected service employee's work hours in order to circumvent the protections under this Act and requires that a successor employer give an affected service employee a written offer of employment in English, Spanish, and in any language that is the first language spoken by at least 5% of the affected service employees. 3. Copies of the required notice and offer of employment must also be sent to the employee's collective bargaining representative, if any. This Act applies as follows: 1. To contractors who enter into a service contract for a covered location, if the contractor employs more than 4 service employees anywhere in the United States. 2. To service employees at covered locations. "Service employees" are individuals employed or assigned to a covered location on a full or part-time basis for at least 60 days in connection with the care or maintenance of a building or property, specific services at an airport, or food preparation services at a school that is an agency under § 6902 of Title 29. Service employees do not include managerial or professional employees, employees regularly scheduled to work less than 16 hours per week, or individuals who work on structural, electric, HVAC, or plumbing projects that require a permit. 3. To service contracts at the following locations: • A multi-family residential building with more than 50 units. • A commercial center, commercial or office complex, or office building occupying more than 100,000 square feet. • A cultural center or complex, including museums, convention centers, arenas, or performance halls. • An industrial site. • A pharmaceutical lab. • An airport or train station. • A health care facility that provides long-term, acute, or outpatient health-care services as these services are defined in § 7971 of Title 29. • A warehouse or distribution center. • A building operated by a State agency subject to the procurement requirements under Chapter 69 of Title 29. A successor employer may only retain fewer than all of the affected service employees during the transition period if the successor employer: 1. Finds that fewer service employees are required to perform the work than the predecessor employer had employed. 2. Retains service employees by seniority within each job classification. 3. Maintains a preferential hiring list of those service employees not retained. 4. Hires any additional service employees from the preferential hiring list, in order of seniority, until all affected service employees have been offered employment. A service employee who has been discharged or otherwise not retained in violation of the requirements under this Act may bring an action against a successor employer or an awarding authority and these violations are subject to punitive damages as follows: 1. For a first violation, an amount not exceeding $2,500. 2. For a second or subsequent violation, an amount not exceeding $5,000. 3. Each work week during which there is a day when a violation occurs constitutes a separate violation. 4. A court may also order back pay, compensatory damages, issue injunctive relief requiring that the successor employer comply with requirements under this Act, and award the service employee reasonable attorney fees and costs. This Act takes effect 90 days after enactment and applies to all contracts entered into or renewed after its enactment into law and is known as “The Service Worker Protection Act”.
Affordable housing is key to building strong communities and neighborhoods. This act provides that the developer of a residential subdivision is provided a percentage credit towards the expense of offsite improvements to state-maintained highways consistent with the percentage of units set aside for affordable housing in a residential subdivision project.
This Act amends Title 16, Chapter 76 of the Delaware Code relating to energy conservation identified in county and municipal building and plumbing codes. Consistent with codes in other States, including New York, Rhode Island, and Washington, among others, this Act requires as a threshold that counties and municipalities must, at minimum, meet the threshold adopted by the Delaware Energy Office (“DEO”). The Act authorizes counties and municipalities to go above the threshold adopted by the DEO. This Act also amends Title 29, Chapter 80 of the Delaware Code by charging the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council and the Sustainable Energy Utility to collaborate to design programs to promote and support the development and construction of energy efficient housing, including programs to alleviate the potential increased upfront costs caused by the adoption of local stretch codes.
This Act strengthens the current practice of obtaining service letters for employment in child care facilities to protect children from workers who have engaged in prior acts that are prohibited by the Office of Child Care Licensing. The Act does all of the following: 1. Requires service letters used for child care facilities ask previous employers whether they would have any concerns about the employee providing care to children. 2. Requires service letters used for child care facilities ask previous employers whether the employee was ever warned, reprimanded, suspended, or discharged for any violations found in the Department of Education's Regulations for Early Care and Education and School-Age Centers. 3. Requires the Office of Child Care Licensing to report any suspected failure of an employer to adhere to the requirements of a service letter to the Department of Labor for review and possible civil penalties. 4. Clarifies the Department of Labor is the only party that can seek civil enforcement under this section. 5. Makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
This Act streamlines and modernizes the State Early Childhood Education Program in § 3001 of Title 14, also referred to as State-funded early care and education, as follows: (1) Adds definitions. (2) Provides the Department of Education (Department) with a general grant of authority to provide early childhood educational services. (3) Subject to available appropriations, § 3001(c) of this Act requires the Department to provide free, full-day early childhood educational services for preschool-age children who satisfy eligibility requirements developed by the Department. This provision incorporates elements of epilogue language from the FY 2024 Annual Appropriation Act regarding the Redding Consortium and the Early Childhood Assistance Program (ECAP). (4) Allows for common standards and processes across programs. (5) Requires the early childhood educational services under § 3001(c) to align with quality standards in the categories of learning environment and curriculum, qualifications and professional development, family and community partnerships, and management and administration. (6) Aligns the length of contracts with the Head Start program, while clarifying that contracts under this section must comply with State procurement standards under Chapter 69 of Title 29. (7) Updates the Code to reflect that the Department uses a quality improvement system instead of Delaware Stars for Early Success. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual and for clarity.
This Act implements a recommendation from the December 31, 2023, Report of the Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee. Under this Act, the state group health insurance program must include a pensioner coordination of benefits policy for eligible pensioners who were first employed by the State on or after January 1, 2015, and are eligible for health care coverage through their employer that is not through a plan under Chapter 52 of Title 29. The new pensioner coordination of benefits policy begins July 1, 2027, and must be comparable to the exiting coordination of benefits policy for the spouse of a state group health insurance program participant who is eligible for health care coverage through the spouse's own employer. This Act also codifies the existing spousal coordination of benefits policies for the state group health insurance program. The existing spousal coordination of benefits policies and the pensioner coordination of benefits policy created under this Act apply to all participants in the state group health insurance program, which includes regular officers or employees, eligible pensioners, and individuals eligible under § 5208 and § 5209 of Title 29. In addition, this Act makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual.
The governance of this State relies on the qualifications and performance of the members of the Governor’s cabinet. The General Assembly finds that the confirmation process is an important step to ensure the qualifications and performance of the Governor’s cabinet. This Act implements the process of aligning the end of the term of each of the members of the Governor’s cabinet with the end of the Governor’s term by designating the principal officer of each executive department who is subject to the amendments to § 10 of Article III of the Delaware Constitution proposed by Senate Bill No. 15. The General Assembly’s intent in making this change is to require each member of the Governor’s cabinet to be reconfirmed by the Senate at the beginning of each term of a Governor. This Act also makes the following consistent: (1) The method of determining the annual salary of members of the Governor’s cabinet, by providing that the General Assembly is to set the salary in the annual appropriations act, thereby conforming the Delaware Code to current practice. (2) The preference for members of the Governor’s cabinet being residents of this State on appointment, by removing from the Delaware Code the preference for residency for the Secretary of the Department of Safety and Homeland Security, the Secretary of the Department of Finance, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, the Secretary of Labor, the Housing Director of the Delaware State Housing Authority, and the Secretary of the Department of State. Residency requirements for members of the Governor’s cabinet are being removed from the Delaware Code by this Act and replaced with a notation that residency requirements are as provided in the Delaware Constitution. Residency requirements for members of the Governor’s cabinet will now be consistent, requiring the members to be residents of this State within at most 1 year after appointment and to remain residents of this State or be deemed resigned from office. This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. Because the next General Assembly must concur in the proposed amendment to the Delaware Constitution, this Act does not take effect until the passage of the second leg of the constitutional amendment in the 153rd General Assembly.
This Act implements a recommendation from the December 31, 2023, Report of the Retiree Healthcare Benefits Advisory Subcommittee. Under this Act, the amount of the premium for a health-care insurance plan that this State will pay on behalf of eligible pensioners who were first employed as a regular officer or employee on or after January 1, 2025, and who are not subject to mandatory retirement, is changed as follows: 1. For eligible pensioners employed by the State for at least 15 years but less than 20 years at the time of retirement, 50% of the of the premium. 2. For eligible pensioners employed by the State for at least 20 years but less than 25 years at the time of retirement, 75% of the of the premium. 3. For eligible pensioners employed by the State for 25 or more years at the time of retirement, 100% of the of the premium. All other revisions to current law under this Act are technical changes to improve clarity and conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. These technical changes include the addition of new defined terms and the reorganization of existing law. In § 5201 of Title 29, this Act makes the following technical changes: 1. Revises the definitions of “eligible pensioner”, “plan”, and “regular officer or employee” to remove inconsistent language and align with each other and current law. 2. To avoid repeating phrases in § 5202 of Title 29, clarifies that only for purposes of the amount of the premium paid by the State for health-care insurance plans, the term “eligible pensioner” includes the eligible pensioner’s eligible spouse and dependents and defines the following terms: • “First employed” means the date when the eligible pensioner began work as a regular officer or employee. • “Mandatory retirement” means mandatory retirement for members of the State Police under § 8361 of Title 11. • “Maximum state share" means the amount of the premium that the State pays for a plan before the proration ratio is applied. • “Premium” means the total premium or subscription charge for a health-care insurance plan provided under Chapter 52 of Title 29. In § 5202 of Title 29, this Act makes technical changes to clarify current law regarding the amount of the premium for a health-care insurance plan that this State will pay on behalf of a regular officer or employee or an eligible pensioner by doing the following: 1. Creates the following terms: • “Proration ratio”, which means the percentage applied to the maximum state share. For eligible pensioners, the “proration ratio” is based on when the eligible pensioner was first employed and the number of years the eligible pensioner had been employed as a regular officer or employee at the time of retirement. • “Prorated state share”, which means the dollar amount that the State pays for a plan on behalf of a regular officer or employee or an eligible pensioner. The “prorated state share” is the product of multiplying the proration ratio with the maximum state share. 2. Revises subsection (a) to use the new terms defined under this Act. 3. Transfers the current provisions in paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) that provide the maximum state share for eligible pensioners to subsection (a), so they are with the maximum state share for regular officers and employees. 4. Revises subsection (b) so that the proration ratio and how it is used to determine the prorated state share is explained in paragraph (b)(1) and the proration ratios are provided in paragraphs (b)(2) and (b)(3). • Paragraph (b)(2) lists all groups for whom the proration ratio is 100% because there are no deductions to the maximum state share. • Paragraph (b)(3) provides the proration ratios for eligible pensioners based on the date the eligible pensioner was first employed and years of employment as a regular officer or employee. These ratios clarify that for eligible pensioners who worked for less than the minimum number of years for the 50% proration ratio, the State does not pay anything towards the maximum state share.
Delaware law prohibits discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics in employment and professional activities. This Act would add "housing status" as a protected characteristic.