On May 31, 2019, the State of Illinois approved House Bill 1438 which created the “Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act”. This Bill was signed, with a lot of “fanfare and publicity,” by Governor Pritzker on June 24, 2019. The Act provides that, effective January 1, 2020, Illinois Residents who are 21 years of age or…

It is time to put up two new posters in the workplace if you are an Illinois employer. ILLINOIS SERVICE MEMBER EMPLOYMENT AND REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT (ISERRA) On August 26, 2018, Governor Rauner signed into law the Illinois Service Member Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (ISERRA) which takes effect January 1, 2019. This new law…

In 2001, specifically July 12, 2001, the State of Illinois put in place legislation dealing with Nursing Mothers in the Workplace (820 ILCS 260/1, et seq.). This legislation required Employers, who had six (6) or more employees, to allow nursing mothers “reasonable unpaid break time each day” to express breast milk for their infant children.…

Some Illinois employers may have neutral absenteeism policies that “administratively terminate” any employee who has failed to return to work from a medical leave of absence after a stated period of time such as one year or some other period of time set by the company. This kind of policy is not advisable because it…

It Depends On What State You Are In!! State laws set the rules governing employers’ legal obligations to allow employees and former employees, see their own personnel files. Therefore, employers should have a firm grasp on the legal rules for employee access to their own personnel files. Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have…

“The importance of documentation” is an axiomatic, and almost trite, battle cry that human resource professionals constantly beat into the psyches of their supervisors – quite often to no avail. But what, really, is “documentation?” When do you do it? How do you do it? And, what, exactly, are you supposed to document? More importantly,…

Two of the five deadliest mass shootings in the United States have taken place over the last few months. On October 1, 2017, fifty-eight (58) people were killed at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. In that shooting, a gunman fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on…

Every day, as a regular part of doing business, employers need to discuss applicants or current and former employees. Communications have changed and evolved over the years and these communications can be in the form of any of the following: In-person verbal communication; over the telephone; mail; fax; email; text messaging; and twitter. Most written…

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ landmark decision in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana (Case No. 15-1720), which established that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination on the issue of sexual orientation, may be an indication that the Courts are willing to adopt much more inclusive positions…

One of the most difficult and time consuming tasks that has confronted me over my lengthy career as a Management Labor Employment Lawyer is the continuing lack of documentation – i.e. evidence – that exists when I am attempting to defend either a Union Grievance, an EEOC Charge, etc. The most important thing that a…