Labor and Employment Law Update

Welcome to the Labor and Employment Law Update where attorneys from SmithAmundsen blog about management side labor and employment issues. We cover topics including addressing harassment and discrimination in the workplace, developing labor law, navigating through ADA(AA), FMLA and workers’ compensation issues, avoiding wage and hour landmines, key legislative, case law and regulatory changes and much more! Learn more about our firm at www.salawus.com.

Latest from Labor and Employment Law Update - Page 3

Unsurprisingly, California is yet again changing its already very employee friendly employment laws. Currently, California leads the nation with its employee friendly laws, though states like Illinois are quickly catching up. The California Legislature’s latest move is a first for any US state by banning “caste” discrimination in the workplace under its civil rights and employment discrimination laws. Seattle passed a similar law in February.
Continue Reading California to Become FIRST EVER State to Ban Caste Discrimination in the
Workplace!!

On July 28, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed into law a number of amendments to Illinois’ Prevailing Wage Act (IPWA), including HB 3370, which amends the IPWA to include “power washing.” Specifically, the term “Public works” under the IPWA is now revised.
Continue Reading Illinois is Expanding its Prevailing Wage Law Yet Again: Power Washing
“Things” Will Soon Be Covered

Employers in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin must now accommodate an employee’s work-schedule “if an employee’s disability substantially interferes with his ability to travel to and from work … if commuting to work is a prerequisite to an essential job function, including attendance in the workplace, and if the accommodation is reasonable under all the circumstances.” Equal Emp. Opportunity Commission v. Charter Communications, LLC, 75 F.4th 729, 734 (7th Cir. 2023). 
Continue Reading Midwest Employers in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin Must Now Accommodate
an Employee’s Transportation Issues Under the ADA??!!

Hold onto your hard hat! What you thought you knew about federal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage law is changing — substantially changing decades of well-established rules, precedent and interpretations as to the applicability and scope of federal prevailing wage laws to construction projects and how contractors must comply with the legal mandates. Remember, federally funded projects that involve construction work in excess of $2,000, will trigger Davis-Bacon obligations.
Continue Reading More Legal Mandates & Changes Impacting the U.S. Construction Industry:Department of Labor’s Updated Davis-Bacon & Related Acts FINAL RULE isEffective October 23, 2023

On September 1st the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposed rule that would require nursing homes that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to comply with a first-ever federal staffing mandate. If adopted, the requirements would be phased in over two to five years. The comment period for the proposed rule closes November 6.
Continue Reading Nursing Homes May Face First-Ever Federal Staffing Mandate

Entering 2023, the union membership rate dropped to a new historic low of 10.1%. Among private sector workers, the numbers were even more bleak for unions: just 6% of the overall private sector workforce is now unionized (compared to 33% in the public sector). The membership rate actually dipped in 2022 in both the private and public sectors. Organized labor has been in full panic mode and seeking assistance from its allies in D.C. while trying to organize as many young adults as possible working in coffee shops and cannabis stores.
Continue Reading The Attack on Employer Free Speech Continues to Grow — More States Enact
Laws to Muzzle Employers on Educating their Employees on the Good, Bad and
Ugly of Unionization

On July 28, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed into law a number of amendments to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (IPWA), including HB 3792, which amends the IPWA to include, among other things, all work related to fixtures or permanent attachments affixed to traffic light and street light poles in the Act’s definition of the term “Public works” — regardless if public funds are used or not. 
Continue Reading Illinois Green Lights Further Expansion of its Notorious Prevailing Wage
Law: All Work Related to Traffic Light and Street Light Poles Regardless of
Public Funding is Now Covered!?!

The current employment market is placing incredible stress on businesses, many of which are struggling to find enough employees to simply cover shifts. Pay increases and higher recruiting costs, consequently, continue to rise. On top of these challenges, inflation and other market pressures have resulted in higher operating costs, compounding the impact to the bottom line.
Continue Reading Best Practices to Protect Your Intellectual Property When an Employee
Leaves the Company

Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) just handed big labor a major assist when it comes to union organizing. In Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC  and International Brotherhood of Teamsters 31-CA-238239, 372 NLRB 130, the NLRB ruled that an employer must essentially recognize a labor union claiming to represent a majority of its employees in an appropriate unit — unless the employer promptly files a petition (an RM Petition) to test the union’s majority status or the appropriateness of the unit. The NLRB went on to explain that absent unforeseen …
Continue Reading BREAKING NEWS! NLRB Makes It Much Easier For Unions to Represent EmployeesBy Forcing Employers to Recognize A Union Under Certain Circumstances

On June 30, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed HB 3351 into law, which amends the Illinois Power Agency Act (IPAA) to require certain projects under the Illinois Solar For All Program to be subject to the prevailing wage requirements of the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (IPWA). Effective June 30, 2023, all workers performing work on such projects must be paid in accordance with the IPWA. Of course, all owners, developers and contractors must become intimately familiar with the IPWA mandates. Since such work has been historically not covered by the IPWA, there is likely a giant learning curve. The IPWA sets
Continue Reading Illinois Extends Prevailing Wage Mandates to ALL Work Performed on Illinois
Solar Projects!

The possible uses of artificial intelligence (AI) have received much coverage lately. Now the risks of using AI to assist in the hiring process are in the spotlight since the EEOC just settled its first suit alleging discrimination in hiring through the use of AI.
Continue Reading Employers Beware: Discriminatory Artificial Intelligence Can Result in
Liability

On Wednesday July 19, 2023, the Chicago City Council introduced legislation to eliminate the city’s “tip credit” over a two-year period (if passed), in an effort to raise the city’s current hourly minimum wage rate for tipped employees to equal the city’s hourly minimum wage rate for non-tipped employees.
Continue Reading Chicago’s City Council Introduces Proposed Legislation Eliminating the Tip
Credit and Expanding Paid Time Off for Chicago Employees

On August 4, 2023, Governor Pritzker signed House Bill 2862 into law amending Illinois’ Day and Temporary Labor Services Act. This game changing legislation passed by State Legislature affects Illinois’ Staffing Industry as a whole and ALL EMPLOYERS that utilize temporary labor in Illinois. For more information about this new legislation, see our previous blog on House Bill 2862.
Continue Reading Governor Signs Into Law NEW Changes to Illinois’ Day and Temporary LaborServices Act and the Illinois Department of Labor Releases EMERGENCYREGULATIONS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!

An employee complains to human resources, “I am a hamster from Venus and filing unfair labor practice charge because the pay policy of paying bi-weekly is chilling my Section 7 rights!” No, this is not a bizarre scene out of a Monty Python movie but now the potential absurd reality in workplaces across the country. Reality, reasonableness…. who needs them? Not the Biden NLRB.
Continue Reading All Workplace Rules Are Now Unlawful in the Eyes of the NLRB — IF
Employees and Unions Say So!?!?