Illinois employers who use employees’ fingerprints, face scans, or other biometric identifiers to enable workers to access timekeeping, payroll, IT, or other systems have long been on notice that the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) imposes an obligation to obtain an employee’s […]
New Illinois Law Mandates Paid Leave for Employees
The Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers (PLFAW) Act was passed by the Illinois legislature in January and was signed into law by Governor Pritzker on March 13, 2023. Effective January 1, 2024, it will require nearly all private sector employers in Illinois […]
In an important decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling in favor of the employer and clarified that “interfering, restraining, and denying are distinct ways of violating the FMLA.”
OOO: While You Were Out, Chicago Called to Tell You About New Anti-Harassment Obligations
Summertime often means summer hours and time out of the office. As such, some employers may have missed that the City of Chicago recently amended its sexual harassment ordinance to expand the definition of “sexual harassment,” to impose new policy and training requirements, to impose additional record keeping requirements, and to increase monetary penalties.
For those employers looking to think, talk and worry about something besides COVID-19, we have just the topic: the Illinois Freedom to Work Act. In August 2021, Governor Pritzker signed into law an amendment to the Act that imposes new restrictions on non-competition and non-solicitation agreements. Here’s what the Omicron variant and vaccine mandates caused you to miss.
Illinois Bias Law Now Covers Criminal Convictions
Illinois employers now have yet another law to navigate. The state human rights statute now bans discrimination based on a candidate’s or employee’s criminal conviction unless the employer can show a “substantial relationship” exists between the conviction and the job or that the employment would involve an “unreasonable risk” to property or safety.
The Illinois Trade Secrets Act (ITSA) prohibits misappropriation of trade secrets and allows recovery of attorneys’ fees in suits to enforce the Act. A recent decision by the Appellate Court of Illinois is a cautionary tale for employers wanting to protect customer lists and other information.
Illinois, like almost every other state, adheres to the centuries-old doctrine of employment at will, which means that either an employer or an employee may terminate their relationship at any time, without notice and without reason.
More than 40 years ago, the Illinois Supreme Court first recognized the tort of retaliatory discharge as an exception to the general rule that an “at-will” employee is terminable at any time and for any or no cause. Now, the court for the first time has confirmed such claims don’t cover the nonrenewal of a fixed-term contract.
With so much attention on COVID-19 and its impact on workplace issues, employers may have lost track of some important changes affecting Illinois employers in 2020. Some of these changes took effect on July 1.