Insights

As we welcome 2019, the following is a recap of new laws affecting Illinois employers. Illinois Human Rights Act The Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) now requires all Illinois employers to advise employees of their right to be free from harassment, discrimination, and retaliation in the workplace.

As 2018 begins to wind down, it is the traditional time for industry experts to prognosticate on risks facing the construction industry. We have reviewed several such prognostications from the insurance and construction industries and combined it with our personal and anecdotal experience and offer the following brief list of issues which the Gould & Ratner Construction Practice believe could impact the industry in the coming year:

On August 21, 2018 the State of Illinois amended the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act to prohibit an employer from reducing an employee’s compensation for breaks for nursing mothers. Originally, employers were required to provide “reasonable unpaid break time each day” to express milk, which “must, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee.” That meant that if nursing mothers needed additional time to express milk beyond existing breaks, then that time would be unpaid.

The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a major victory for employers across America – ruling that mandatory arbitration agreements that contain a provision prohibiting any form of class or collective litigation are lawful.The issue was ripe for consideration at the Supreme Court because there was a split among the Circuit Courts of Appeal as to whether such provisions were enforceable.Thus, employers in some states could have the class action waiver, while employers in other states could not.