Labor & Employment Law Update

It seems like a lifetime ago that we first posted on the legalization of cannabis in Illinois and its effect on Illinois employers, way back in November 2019. At that time we provided a detailed overview of the clarifications and updates to the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (“Cannabis Act”) as it relates to use in the workplace. Of course, use of cannabis at the workplace, or use that leads to impairment of an employee while on duty at the workplace, is allowed to be prohibited by the employer, even in a state where it is legal, such as Illinois. That is essentially a common sense no-brainer as it implicates safety concerns, and can be analogized to the use of alcohol at the workplace. But, the question remained to what extent can a positive drug test for cannabis (separate from impairment or use at the workplace) be used to deny or terminate employment, especially when that use was “recreational” and done off duty?

There seems to be an almost daily litany of layoffs by large corporations that instantly become media fodder. For example, McDonald’s recent layoff, widely reported to have impacted hundreds of white collar employees, comes on the heels of mass layoffs by Amazon, Meta, and Disney. Given this climate, it is best for employers to take a look at their policies and procedures for terminating employees, whether individually or as part of a larger reduction in force to ensure compliance with state and federal law.

In another example of the Department of Labor (DOJ) pursuing criminal anti-trust cases against employers throughout the country, on October 27^th, 2022, VDA OC, LLC (formerly Advantage On Call or AOC), a health care staffing company, pled guilty to conspiring with a competitor to assign and fix nurses salaries within a specific school district in Nevada, which violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act. We have previously written in more detail regarding the DOJ’s new commitment to criminally prosecute supposed labor market collusion amongst competitors. This guilty plea is essentially the DOJ’s first “win” in its criminal enforcement of labor violations under the federal antitrust laws, after incurring two prior losses.  If employers are not attuned to this area of the law already, this serves as yet another wake up call.

If companies that employ Illinois residents and use any type of equipment to scan fingers, hands, face, or eyes were not yet aware of and concerned by the Illinois’ biometric privacy law, the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA), they should be now. On October 12, 2022, after a week-long trial, a federal jury returned a verdict finding that one of the nation’s largest railway companies, BNSF, had violated BIPA—to the tune of a $228 million judgment.

The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”) recently held that employers must continue deducting union dues from workers’ paychecks (referred to as “dues checkoff”) as agreed in their collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”), even after those agreements expire.

In a continuance of the labor-friendly trajectory of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the current administration, the 9th Circuit recently issued a decision upholding the right of the NLRB to award legal fees to a union incurred during the collective bargaining process. This ruling should put all unionized employers on notice of the ripple effects of decisions such as this one on their own bargaining.

If we were to tell you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) “Regarding Information Sharing, Cross-Agency Training, and Outreach in Areas of Common Regulatory Interest,” your response may well be “What?  Why?  And what ‘Common Regulatory Interest’ could they possibly share?”  Well, good questions.

On June 10, 2022 Governor Pritzker signed into law two new amendments to the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (“Act”) that now expose non-union general contractors to liability for the wages of their subcontractor’s employees. Essentially, the amendments open up general contractors entering into construction contracts in Illinois to potential liability for claims brought under the Act against their subcontractors, for all contracts entered into on or after July 1, 2022.

Perhaps flying under the radar of everyone except antitrust lawyers (and the employers who have been targeted), the Department of Justice (DOJ) has made a concerted push recently to use federal anti-trust laws as a tool to bolster workers’ rights, even going so far as to prosecute employers for alleged anticompetitive practices in labor markets. 

Court decisions dealing with and interpreting the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act do not occur with great regularity. So when an interesting decision comes down, we feel it is worth reporting on and should be noted by those businesses that are subject to the Act.

The case is Rodriguez v. Simplex Grinnell LP and is from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, decided in August 2021. In that case, the court rejected plaintiffs’ (employees of Simplex Grinnell who worked on public projects in the State of Illinois) argument that testing andor inspecting work ...

Signed into law on October 7, 2021 by California Governor Gavin Newsom and effective January 1, 2022, the “Silenced No More Act” amends and expands the previous Stand Together Against Non-Disclosures (STAND) Act. 

The STAND Act was passed in 2018 in the wake of the #MeToo movement and focused specifically on claims of sexual harassment and discrimination or retaliation based on sex.  The new law goes beyond the STAND Act’s focus on sex discrimination and harassment, and expands its protections to any characteristic protected under California law. For example, this would ...

In the past several months there has been a flurry of Executive Orders and other legally binding rules regarding vaccine mandates. Standing first and above the rest are the Executive Order by the Biden Administration mandating federal contractors have a vaccinated workforce without the option for testing (we previously blogged on this topic on September 13, 2021 and on September 27, 2021), and the imminent Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to be issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). 

In the wake of those federal mandates many states have ...

The United States Department of Labor released a long-awaited Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) for private employers with over 100 employees. The 490 page interim final rule answers a number of questions employers have had since the Biden Administration announced its plan in September, including:

What is the application to employers?

The ETS applies to employers with 100 or more employees as of November 5, 2021, regardless of the number of employees working at a specific location. The ETS does not, however, apply to employers covered by the CMS rule or federal ...

On September 9, 2021 President Biden announced sweeping new vaccine mandates for federal employees, federal contractors, and an upcoming OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard Rule for companies with more than 100 employees.

The Fight for Restroom Rights – Illinois Courts Follow National Trend in Prohibiting Sex Discrimination of Transgender Employees and Requiring Equal Access to Bathrooms

On June 10, 2021 OSHA issued its COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for the health care industry, along with general guidance for all other employers, which we already touched on in a previous post. However, there remains a lot to unpack, as there are many unanswered questions, especially for the health care field.  Below we dig a bit deeper into the ETS and its practical implications for health care providers.

Are you covered? The first question—and it is not as clear cut as it may seem—is whether the ETS applies to your business. OSHA has issued a flowchart to ...

A federal judge in Texas on June 12, 2021 dismissed a lawsuit brought by Texas health care workers challenging their hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The scathing opinion by U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes left no doubt that he believed the claims of the 117 plaintiffs were without merit.

The lawsuit was brought by employees of Houston Methodist Hospital, who had refused the vaccine, after the hospital in April announced a policy requiring  vaccination of all employees.  In early June, over 170 employees of the hospital were suspended for two weeks without pay over their ...

Given the “new normal” of remote work for many employees throughout the country, the question as to whether to allow an employee to work in another state – either permanently or temporarily – has become something employers are now scrambling to answer.  However, it is not as simple as determining whether the employee can do the work remotely, there are numerous considerations and implications employers should be aware of if they have employees working in a different state than the location of their main operations. 

First, employers should have clear guidelines and policies ...

On November 17, 2020, the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) proposed an update to its Compliance Manual’s section on Religious Discrimination. The proposed Manual is open for public comment until December 17, 2020, after which the EEOC will take those comments into consideration before publishing the finalized updated Compliance Manual. The EEOC Compliance Manual is not binding and has no force of law. Nonetheless, employers should take note of the Manual as it provides insight on how the EEOC may consider charges alleging religious discrimination claims in the future, as ...

On September 30, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 973.  This new pay reporting law applies to private employers in California: (a) with 100 or more employees; and (b) that are required to file an annual Employer Information Report (EEO-1) pursuant to federal law. Beginning March 31, 2021, and on an annual basis, covered employers will have to provide California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) with pay data by specified job categories and by race, ethnicity and sex. We previously reported on this anticipated legislation ...

On July 8, 2020 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. civil rights laws barring discrimination on the job do not apply to most lay teachers at religious elementary schools. The decision extends earlier Supreme Court rulings that shielded religious organizations from employment-discrimination claims by ministers, called the “ministerial exception.” This principle, which courts derived from the First Amendment, bars the government from telling a religious institution whom to choose as its faith leaders. Respecting that principle sometimes requires the ...

On June 15, 2020 the United States Supreme Court handed down a momentous decision ruling that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) protects gay and transgender employees from workplace discrimination. The decision consolidated three cases where the employees were terminated from their jobs: two separate cases involving the terminations of gay employees; and one case involving the termination of a transgender employee.

The vote was 6 to 3, with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and ...

In an update to our previous blog on Illinois extending its stay-at-home order through May 30, 2020, Governor Pritzker’s latest Executive Order on COVID-19 (Executive Order No. 2020-32), issued April 30, 2020, mandates that all businesses that have employees physically reporting to a work-site must post the guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) regarding workplace safety during the COVID-19 emergency. 

The guidance is found on the IDPH website, and informs employees that their employer should:

• Make sure that employees can maintain at least 6 feet of ...

With the constantly shifting state and local stay-at-home orders and the potential relaxing of these orders on the horizon, the question for employers still remains: What do we do if an employee has COVID-19? 

Once an employer receives a report that an employee has tested positive for or is presumed to have COVID-19, the employer should do the following:

• Instruct the infected employee to stay home for the longer of the period of time recommended by his or her health care provider or the applicable health department or until 1) at least 3 days (72 hours) have passed since resolution of fever ...

On Thursday April 23, 2020 Governor Pritzker announced that he was extending and modifying the existing Stay at Home Order for Illinois, which was set to expire April 30, 2020. The new executive order will run through the end of May and will include the following modifications effective May 1, 2020:

• OUTDOOR RECREATION: State parks will begin a phased re-opening under guidance from the Department of Natural Resources. Fishing and boating in groups of no more than two people will be permitted. A list of parks that will be open on May 1 and additional guidelines can be found on ...

An important question for employers in essential industries is whether its employees should come to work after potential exposure to COVID-19.  The previous guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) recommended employees stay home for 14 days after exposure.  However, late on April 8, 2020 the CDC issued new guidelines — abandoning the former restrictions — for employers of critical infrastructure workers in essential sectors such as health care, manufacturing, food and agriculture, information technology, and transportation.  The CDC ...

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and the patchwork state-law equivalents are often overlooked when employers are considering their options regarding potential layoffs or furloughs – either permanent or temporary. Employers should be cautioned that not abiding by the requirements of the WARN Act could lead to problems down the road.

The WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to give an advance 60-day written notice to its displaced workers, certain third parties, and government bodies notice for a plant closing or mass ...

***Please see updated information on FFCRA regulations in our April 3, 2020 post.

A component of the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requires covered employers to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19 starting April 1. Additionally, many states and local governments have now mandated that non-essential businesses close and that its citizens stay at home, subject to certain exceptions, often referred to as Shelter in Place (SIP) or Stay at Home orders.

The question ...