Labor & Employment Law Update

As employers scramble to meet the September 30, 2019 deadline to submit pay data for years 2017 and 2018, they can find some relief in knowing that the EEOC recently stated that it does not intend to collect pay data for 2019 or after at this time. According to the EEOC’s Notice of Information Collection, the EEOC will only request approval from the Office of Management  and Budget (OMB) to renew its collection of Component 1 data (demographic data), but will not seek approval to continue collection of Component 2 data (pay data and hours worked data). 

Since previously requesting ...

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is expected to implement its proposal to amend the minimum salary requirements for exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) no later than the end of 2019. As you may recall, a similar proposal was set for 2016 but was not implemented due to a court injunction. Under the FLSA, the current minimum salary threshold for exempt employees is $455/week ($23,660 annually) which is anticipated to increase under the DOL’s proposal to $679/week ($35,308 annually). Note, state law requirements may be more generous than the FLSA ...

In 2014, the Seventh Circuit Federal Appellate Court that covers federal courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, held that an employee’s trip to Las Vegas qualified for FMLA leave and was protected by the FMLA because he was providing daily care to his terminally ill mother.  Ballard v. Chicago Park District, 741 F.3d 838 (7th Cir. Jan. 28, 2014).

This case highlighted the fact that in looking at whether something like a trip to Las Vegas qualifies for FMLA leave, we have to look past the initial issue and ask whether it is to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child or ...

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), retaliation claims continue to be the most frequently filed charges of discrimination at the federal agency by far. According to the EEOC’s Fiscal Year 2018 Enforcement and Litigation Data, retaliation claims made up 51.6 percent of all charges filed last year. Given their frequency, employers should be as proactive as possible in protecting themselves from these claims.

The Seventh Circuit recently affirmed summary judgment in a Title VII retaliation case, and in doing so sent a reminder to employers ...

The recent decision in Dyer v. Ventra Sandusky, LLC, issued by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (which has jurisdiction over Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee), should motivate employers to take another look at whether their attendance policies run afoul of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

There are plenty of gray areas in the law, but it is generally clear that employees are not to be disciplined because they are absent for FMLA-covered reasons. That also means that employees should not accumulate attendance “points,” e.g., under a no-fault attendance ...

In May, we reported on Illinois becoming the eleventh state to permit recreational marijuana beginning January 1, 2020. Noncitizens in these eleven states and the District of Columbia may reasonably conclude that using marijuana in accordance with state law will have no bearing on immigration status. Unfortunately, that is a wrong assumption. Federal law controls immigration, and it remains a federal offense to possess marijuana. For the unsuspecting foreign national, this is a legal distinction that many will not understand. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers ...

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employees must be properly classified as either exempt or nonexempt, and nonexempt employees must be paid overtime (1½ times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek). All compensation, including commissions and non-discretionary bonuses, must be included in the regular rate of pay for purposes of calculating overtime, unless the compensation is one of eight specified types of payment (e.g., holiday gift, birthday gift, discretionary bonus, and certain profit sharing payments).

Employees may be ...

On August 13, 2019, Illinois Comptroller, Susana Mendoza, signed an Executive Order (EO) aimed at enforcement of the state’s prevailing wage law (aka mandatory top line union wage/benefits scale) for “construction” projects receiving state money. On the surface, one would say “hey, that’s a pretty good idea.”  But… the EO invites more questions than answers.  More importantly, it encourages organized labor to target contractors that they have disputes with (without any proof or evidence of actual non-compliance with prevailing wage law) and the Comptroller may ...

In January 2019, we reported on the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision, Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp., where the highest court in Illinois unanimously found that an individual need not allege (or show) an actual injury to qualify as an “aggrieved” person under the Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). This decision opened up the floodgates for additional, class action litigation under this Illinois statute.

Then, last week, in Patel v. Facebook, (a case that was originally filed in Illinois but later transferred to the Northern ...

MAJOR CHANGES TO ILLINOIS EMPLOYMENT LAWS:  NEW MANDATORY SEXUAL HARASSMENT TRAINING, REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENTS, RESTRICTIONS ON EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENTS, & SEVERAL OTHER MANDATES

ATTENTION Illinois employers of ALL sizes… Are you ready?  Today (August 9, 2019), Governor Pritzker signed Senate Bill 75 – the Workplace Transparency Act – into law.  Effective January 1, 2020, major new changes will forever alter how Illinois employers manage harassment and discrimination issues as well as other workplace controversies.

In fact, the changes will require ALL ...