We address issues, cases and matters of statutory and regulatory compliance of employment law that can impact a business' growth and profitability.
On August 2, the NLRB majority continued its relentless reversal of Board precedent which reasonably balanced rights of employees and employers. In Stericycle and Teamsters Local 628, the Board revisited its standard for evaluating work rules and employment policies.
On February 17, 2023, the Illinois Supreme Court issued its decision in Cothron v. White Castle, 2023 IL 128004, which has far reaching impacts on Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) litigation and on any Illinois employer who has used handprint, thumbprint, or other biometric scanning devices for its employees.
The Illinois General Assembly has struck again. On August 11, 2017, Governor Rauner signed into law an amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act providing that discrimination includes a practice by an employer imposing upon a person as a condition of obtaining or retaining employment, including promotion, advancement, or transfer, any terms or conditions that would require such person to violate or forgo a sincerely held practice of his or her religion, including, but not limited to, the wearing of any attire, clothing, or facial hair in accordance with the requirements of his or her religion.
A slew of new laws went into effect on January 1 in Illinois. Below are key labor and employment laws: SB3163 creates the Illinois Freedom to Work Act providing that no employer may enter into a covenant not to compete with any low-wage employee. Low-wage employee is defined as a wage earner making the greater of the applicable minimum wage or $13.00 per hour. HB3554 directs the Illinois Department of Labor to search for employees who have been harmed by unpaid wages so they may recover what they are owed.
Recently, in Hernandez v. Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that where overtime is considered mandatory an employer may deduct missed shifts from an employee's allotted intermittent leave allotment under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), but that the employer must also include mandatory overtime hours when calculating an employee's total FMLA-leave allotment. Failure to do so constitutes an FMLA interference claim.