Amendments to the Workplace Transparency Act 

If you rely on standard confidentiality, arbitration, or severance language in your employment agreements, it’s time to take a closer look.

A new bill—HB 3638—has passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and is expected to be signed into law soon. It makes substantial changes to the Workplace Transparency Act, expanding employee rights and tightening the rules around how employers handle separation, reporting, and post-employment restrictions.

This bill doesn’t just clean up old language—it shifts the entire compliance landscape.

If enacted, HB 3638 will introduce the following key changes:

1. Confidentiality Clauses Are Now Time-Limited
Any confidentiality clause in a settlement or termination agreement must now expire within five years of the incident in question. Employers can no longer quietly lock away misconduct or complaints with indefinite nondisclosure.

2. Broader Employee Rights—Even After Signing
Employees retain the right to:

These rights cannot be waived—even by mutual agreement.

3. Expanded Definition of “Unlawful Employment Practice”
The Act will now include violations of federal and state employment laws enforced by agencies like OSHA, the DOL, and the NLRB. This significantly broadens the scope of what employers must account for when drafting agreements.

4. Real Financial Risk for Violations
Employees who challenge an illegal agreement (or successfully defend against enforcement) may recover consequential damages in addition to attorney’s fees and costs. That’s a material shift in risk exposure for employers using outdated templates.

5. Clarification of the Right to Testify
No agreement can prevent someone from testifying—under subpoena or formal request—about criminal conduct or unlawful employment practices. The law clarifies that this has always been the case, but now makes it unmistakable.

If you operate in Chicago or Cook County, you already face some of the most rigorous and layered compliance obligations in the country. Between city ordinances, state statutes, and federal rules, keeping your documents aligned is a moving target.

HB 3638 raises the stakes.

Many employers use confidentiality or severance templates that haven’t been reviewed in years. Some rely on arbitration clauses that may now run afoul of public policy. Others assume that if something was enforceable in 2020, it still is today.

That assumption is about to become expensive.

At Savine Employment Law, we created our Workplace Law Ready program for exactly this kind of moment—a flat-fee, proactive compliance solution that includes a customized, compliant employee handbook tailored to your real practices (not off-the-shelf boilerplate), onboarding and termination tools to help you hire and separate the right way, legally required postings and self-guided harassment prevention training, and a live HR law training session for owners and managers—so your leadership team knows how to spot and avoid the next issue before it starts.

For employers seeking more tailored, hands-on support, we also offer ongoing subscription options like our Employer Protector program and our +Connected Counselor program—both designed to provide practical, business-minded legal guidance in a predictable, budget-friendly way.

The best time to review your employment agreements was last month.
The second-best time is now.