On July 31, 2024, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Illinois Senate Bill 3649, or the Worker Freedom of Speech Act (WFSA), prohibiting employers from holding mandatory meetings to discuss company views on...more
8/14/2024
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
General Meetings ,
Governor Pritzker ,
Illinois ,
Mandatory Requirements ,
New Legislation ,
Penalties ,
Political Speech ,
Religious Beliefs ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Equal pay issues are becoming more prominent across the country, and significant new legislation in Illinois is worth noting (whether or not the company does business there). Joining Michael Schmidt to discuss the law and its...more
Last year, Illinois made sweeping amendments to its state Equal Pay Act (EPA). Governor J.B. Pritzker twice signed bills passed by the Illinois legislature — first on March 23, 2021, and then on June 25, 2021, (the EPA...more
We are ten months into this pandemic, and many employees continue to work remotely with no end in sight. Indeed, recent surveys show that a sizeable number of employees prefer remote work and hope to continue working remotely...more
With the July 1 deadline looming and most businesses still closed or operating at a reduced capacity, the Chicago City Council has amended the Fair Workweek (FWW) Ordinance to delay the filing of private employee lawsuits...more
This is Part 2 of Mike Schmidt's 2-part episode pitting employee/plaintiff-side lawyer Hope Pordy, Esq. against employer/defendant-side lawyer Jeremy Glenn, Esq. to finish debating some interesting HR topics....more
4/17/2020
/ At-Will Employment ,
Code of Conduct ,
Confidential Information ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Exempt-Employees ,
First Amendment ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
Protected Concerted Activity ,
Social Media ,
Unions ,
Work Life Balance ,
Workplace Communication
This is Part 1 of a 2-Part episode that pits an employee-side (plaintiff) lawyer against an employer-side (defendant) lawyer to debate various HR and employment law issues, including such questions as the future of at-will...more
Following in the footsteps of California, New York and Illinois are proposing their own versions of Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). The result could be a dramatic shift in how workers are classified. While these laws are intended to...more
On August 9, 2019, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law Public Act 101-0221, which goes into effect January 1, 2020, and places new requirements on employers related to employment contracts, training, and agency...more
On July 24, 2019, the Chicago City Council unanimously passed the most comprehensive “predictive scheduling” ordinance in the nation that includes significant notice, scheduling, and rest provisions for many employers in...more
The proposed Chicago Fair Workweek Ordinance, introduced in the City Council on May 29, 2019, would require certain Chicago employers to publish employees’ schedules two weeks in advance and limit their ability to change...more
6/10/2019
/ Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Workweek ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Local Ordinance ,
Pending Legislation ,
Rulemaking Process ,
State and Local Government ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
Breaking its 50-year silence on the matter, on March 28 the U.S. Department of Labor announced its intention to update the federal regulations explaining how to calculate the “regular rate of pay” for non-exempt employees. ...more
An obvious key to maintaining good employee relations is to keep employees satisfied with their work and their work environment. ...more
On September 4, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division rolled out “updated” FMLA compliance forms and, despite containing no substantive changes, if your company uses the model FMLA forms, these new forms...more
Effective July 1, 2017, Chicago and Cook County will join a growing contingent of localities that require employers to offer paid sick leave to employees. Here’s what employers need to understand now to avoid being caught off...more
Activist NLRB Created More Problems For All Employers in 2016 - What Happens Under President Trump?
During 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) maintained its generally pro-union, anti-employer...more
1/12/2017
/ 21st Century Cures Initiative ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Ambush Election Rules ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Arbitration ,
Asset Seizure ,
Ban the Box ,
Blacklist ,
Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Criminal Investigations ,
DACA ,
Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dream Act ,
E-Verify ,
EB-5 ,
EB-5 Regional Centers ,
Educational Institutions ,
EEO-1 ,
Email Policies ,
Employee Definition ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Restrooms ,
Employees ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Foreign Workers ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Graduate Students ,
H-1B ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
HRA ,
Immigrants ,
Immigration Reform ,
Independent Contractors ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Joint Employers ,
Management Rights Clauses ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Mexico ,
Minimum Salary ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Obama Administration ,
OFCCP ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Transparency ,
Persuader Rules ,
Protected Activity ,
Right to Strike ,
Section 7 ,
Sick Leave ,
Small Business ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Teaching Assistants ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers ,
White-Collar Exemptions ,
Witness Statements
During 2016, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or the Board) maintained its generally pro-union, anti-employer stance in ways that affect both unionized and non-unionized employers. The Board currently sits with three...more
Adding to the growing body of case law dealing with the employment status of college students vis-à-vis institutions of higher learning where they are enrolled, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently ruled...more
Good news for employers: the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new white collar exemption regulations will not go into effect on December 1, 2016. On Thursday, November 22, just days before the effective date, a Texas federal court...more
Employers and their legal counsel are applauding the November 16 decision from a federal judge in Texas that granted a motion for summary judgment filed by a group of business associations and law firms against the Department...more
Large government contractors on Monday received a reprieve, at least preliminarily, from the implementation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s so-called “blacklisting” rules, under which covered contractors (including...more
10/27/2016
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Blacklist ,
Covered Entities ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Law Violations ,
Over-Time ,
Paycheck Transparency ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Subcontracts ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
Effective July 1, 2017, Chicago will join a growing contingent of cities and states that require employers to offer paid sick leave to employees. The Chicago City Council unanimously passed an ordinance last week requiring...more
This week the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released final regulations regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) executive, administrative and professional overtime exemptions, also known as the “white collar”...more
Unless Congress steps in, effective July 1, 2016, employers and the labor relations consultants, including lawyers, with whom they work to counter unionization efforts will be subject to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL)...more
In a decision that comes as a surprise to many observers, the U.S. Supreme Court held this week in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo et al. that plaintiffs can use representative evidence in a donning and doffing class or...more
3/26/2016
/ Admissible Evidence ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Doffing ,
Donning ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Rules Enabling Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Statistical Sampling ,
Tyson Foods v Bouaphakeo ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour