Labor & Employment Law Update

As the new coronavirus (COVID-19) slowly appears outside China, employers should take precautions to protect their workplaces. To that end, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued guidance for businesses and employers regarding COVID-19.

While the flu and COVID-19 have similar symptoms, COVID-19 is not the flu. Coronaviruses range from the common cold to SARS and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome). COVID-19’s symptoms are a mild to severe respiratory illness with fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Symptoms may appear in two to 14 days after exposure ...

As employers seek to reduce costs and time in the hiring process through artificial intelligence (AI) tools, they should also be aware of potential legal risks that come with merging recruitment with technologic innovation. Employers are turning to AI to assist with many aspects of the recruitment and hiring process, including automating the sourcing of potential candidates, screening from an existing candidate pool, and using AI assessment tools, such as conversational chatbots and video interviewing tools that can measure a candidate’s strengths based on factors such as ...

Congress recently passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (the SECURE Act), the largest package of retirement plan reforms in more than ten years.  This sweeping federal legislation aimed at the private employer-based retirement system is not to be confused with the Illinois Secure Choice Act, passed in 2015, which created a state-run retirement savings program.

The SECURE Act includes a myriad of provisions from multiple bills intended to make it easier for businesses to offer retirement plans and for individuals to save for retirement. The law ...

On February 3, 2020 a coding flaw in a mobile app delayed the tabulation and reporting of the Iowa Democratic Caucus results.

This high-profile failure reminds us that technological glitches can show up any time but especially when a system is put to extreme use.

This reminder is the guiding principle for an H-1B preparation strategy this year. A sound strategy involves planning for glitches with back up measures to ensure as smooth an H-1B filing experience as possible.

New changes to the H-1B filing process may introduce several speed bumps to the process of filing petitions.

On January 31, 2020, the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the release of a new version of the Form I-9, version 10/21/2019. This new version contains only minor changes to the Form I-9 itself and  to the Form I-9 instructions.  

The one key thing employers must be aware of is that the issuance of the new version of the Form I-9 impacts what version an employer may use going forward. According to the USCIS press release, until April 30, 2020, employers can use either: (1) the new Form I-9, version 10/21/2019 or (2) Form I-9 with a revision date of 07/17/2017 N. On ...

In the face of billions of dollars of potential liability at trial, social media giant, Facebook, opted for the finality of a class-wide settlement—to the tune of $550 million—reached with Illinois users complaining of violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Facebook explained that the settlement was “in the best interest of [its] community and shareholders.” If approved by the court, the $550 million settlement will be the largest of its kind and will put an end to a case where Plaintiffs alleged that Facebook violated BIPA by collecting ...