Labor & Employment Law Update

Making sure your company is complying with the ADA just got a little bit more difficult (as if it wasn’t already difficult enough).

The Appellate Court for the Seventh Circuit recently issued two rulings that have added to the complexity of the ADA.  In Spurling v. C & M Fine Pack, Inc., 13-1708, 2014 WL 107968 (7th Cir. Jan. 13, 2014), the plaintiff had been fired after repeatedly falling asleep while on the job.  After the district court granted summary judgment, the appeals court reversed finding that the company had notice that the employee was suffering from a medical condition ...

On January 27, 2014, in Sandifer v. U.S. Steel Corp., 12-417, 2014 WL 273241 (U.S. Jan. 27, 2014), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Seventh Circuit decision that time spent donning and doffing protective gear was time spent “changing clothes” under Section 203(o) of the FLSA allowing parties to a collective bargaining agreement the ability to bargain over compensability of such time at the beginning and end of the work day.

Clifton Sandifer filed a collective action under the FLSA seeking compensation for the time he and others spent donning and doffing work gear items ...

Filings, filings and more filings…that is the theme of 2014. It seems like every month brings another looming deadline – taxes, 5500 etc. Well, let February be no exception. From February 1, 2014 through April 30, 2014, employers who are required to keep OSHA Form 300, the Injury and Illness Log, must post the Form 300A, the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, in a conspicuous workplace common area.

If you are reading this and saying ‘huh??’ or ‘uh oh!’, you are not alone. But never fear! Amundsen Davis will get you through yet another governmental regulatory ...

Another Attempt to Help Labor Unions

Last month, we reported the recent amendment to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (IPWA) requiring fringe benefits to now be annualized for purpose of taking a credit for fringe benefit payments.  The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) recently updated its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to explain how the IDOL interprets the new annualization requirement.  In the process of updating its guidance, the IDOL has expanded on how fringe benefits might affect the prevailing base hourly rate that a contractor must pay.  ...

Recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reiterates that the DOL will allow telemedicine visits—generally speaking, health care appointments held via video conference—to qualify as in-person visits to a health care provider under certain circumstances.

As our readers know, the FMLA provides certain employees up to 12 workweeks of leave for, among other things, a “serious health condition.”  An employee can show the existence of a serious health condition by several methods that include establishing that the employee has an illness or injury that involves ...

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, ADAAA) prohibits, among other things, an employer from discriminating against an employee with a disability on the basis of that disability.  The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois recently interpreted the definition of disability to include obesity.

While the EEOC’s ADA interpretive guidelines provide that obesity is a disability in “rare circumstances” only, the court in this case mused that an administrative assistant who claimed to have had weight-related difficulty walking across a parking lot ...

The U.S. Supreme Court continues to rule in favor of the ERISA plan document.

A disability plan’s three-year limitations period doesn’t violate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a unanimous Court ruled on December 16, 2013 in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Ins. Co. “[A] participant and a plan may agree by contract to a particular limitations period, even one that starts to run before the cause of action accrues,” held the Court. ERISA itself does not specify a statute of limitations for claims brought under covered plans.

 In Heimeshoff, the ...

Back in October, we discussed Unite Here Local 355 v. Mulhall, a case pending at that time in the U.S. Supreme Court.  The issue in Mulhall was whether a union neutrality agreement could be a “thing of value” paid, lent, or delivered to a union in violation of Section 302 of the Labor-Management Relations Act (“LMRA”).

The misnomer is that neutrality agreements have little to do with neutrality.  Instead, they are a way for a particular union to virtually guarantee that it will acquire control over employees who may have no interest at all in being unionized.

In December, the ...

The EEOC’s administrative division raked in a record $372.1 million in voluntary payments from private sector employers in fiscal year 2013 (9/2012-9/2013) according to its Performance Accountability Report issued December 16.  This figure, the highest in the Commission’s history, surpassed FY 2012 by nearly $7 million and comes despite sequestration which forced budget cuts, a hiring freeze and mandatory furloughs on the agency.  The Commission reported resolving nearly 14,000 fewer charges in FY 2013 (97,252) than it did in FY 2012, indicating an increase in the ...

On December 19, 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court issued its much anticipated decision in Venture-Newberg-Perini, Stone & Webster v. Ill. Workers’ Compensation Comm’n., No. 115728 (Ill. 2013).   Claimant Ronald Daugherty accepted temporary employment 200 miles from his home at Respondent Venture’s Cordova plant.  Daugherty and coworker Todd McGill chose to stay in a hotel 30 miles from the plant rather than make the 400 mile/day roundtrip commute after their 12-hour shifts.  On what was to be their second day of work, McGill, driving his own truck, skidded on ice while ...