by: Maryjo F. Pirages Reynolds Effective January 1, 2019, the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act has been amended to require employers to reimburse expenses incurred by employees in connection with their employment. These expenses include reasonable expenditures or losses required in the discharge of an employee’s duties which primarily benefit the employer. Losses due […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds November 14th, 2018
Posted In: Employment & Labor
by: Alexander J. Mezny The United States Supreme Court has just rejected 50 years of precedent holding that overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) must be narrowly construed against the employer. The case, Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Hector Navarro, et al., involved one of the many industry-specific exemptions to the FLSA – […]
Alexander Mezny April 19th, 2018
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Maryjo F. Pirages Reynolds Illinois employers already need to exercise caution to avoid prematurely inquiring about an applicant’s criminal history in violation of the Illinois Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act, effective January 1, 2015. Soon, there could be a need for Illinois employers to avoid asking job applicants about their salary history. In […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds March 1st, 2018
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Maryjo Pirages Reynolds Illinois employers with 15 or more employees have been required by the Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act (“VESSA”) to provide unpaid leave to employees who were victims or in a family/household of a victim of domestic or sexual violence. VESSA was recently amended to require that all Illinois employers, regardless […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds July 26th, 2017
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Leave Laws
By: Maryjo Pirages Reynolds Beginning on September 18, 2017, all employers must use a revised Form I-9, which was just published by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The new Form I-9 has a revision date in the bottom left-hand corner of “07/17/17 N” and is available at: https://www.uscis.gov/i-9. The new Form I-9 updates the […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds July 18th, 2017
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Immigration
By: Alexander J. Mezny The Illinois Sick Leave Act (the “Act”) requires businesses to allow use of existing sick leave to care for certain family members. Only one year old, the Act has already been expanded to include step-children and domestic partners (it already covered the employee’s child, spouse, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, […]
Alexander Mezny January 31st, 2017
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Policies & Agreements
By: Alexander J. Mezny and Maryjo F. Pirages Reynolds The Occupational Safety and Health Administration published Regulations that are effective as of December 1, 2016 and seek to prohibit retaliation in connection with the reporting of a workplace illness or injury. These Regulations require electronic submission of injury and illness information for employers with 250 […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds November 4th, 2016
Posted In: Discrimination/Retaliation, Employment & Labor, Policies & Agreements
By: Alexander J. Mezny The Illinois Freedom to Work Act bars employers from entering into covenants not to compete with employees who earn $13 per hour or less, effective January 1, 2017. Once the minimum wage increases beyond $13 per hour, the minimum wage will become the new threshold. The Act will not affect pre-existing […]
Alexander Mezny September 28th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Policies & Agreements
By: Maryjo F. Pirages Reynolds The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs background checks which it refers to as “consumer reports.” Employers cannot be careful enough when running a background check on a current or prospective employee. Plaintiffs’ attorneys filed over 400 class action lawsuits last year in connection with improper background check procedures. Employers […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds August 10th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Maryjo F. Pirages Reynolds I-9 audits can detect even inadvertent errors, saving employers from civil fines of up to $1,100 per improperly documented employee. Many employers are unintentionally violating the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and an I-9 audit can catch inaccuracies, instruct on best practices, and provide evidence of good faith […]
Maryjo Pirages Reynolds August 10th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Immigration