As a reminder to employers in Chicago, anti-sexual harassment training is required by Chicago’s Human Rights Ordinance and must be completed by July 1, 2023. This requirement applies to all Chicago employers, regardless of size or industry.
Continue Reading Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Deadline Approaches for Chicago Employers
In late 2022, Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the PUMP Act. Both Acts are among a number of protections passed to address working conditions for women workers.
Continue Reading Pregnant or Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Get Some Relief
On January 24, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released new guidance to help employers comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (“ADA”) requirements for job applicants and employees with hearing impairments. The guidance titled “Hearing Disabilities in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” replaces a May 7, 2014 resource titled “Deafness and Hearing Impairments in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act,” and provides an overview of the ADA’s requirements for hearing impaired individuals, including the definition of a disability, pre- and post-job offer disability-related questions, and providing reasonable accommodations in the workplace.
Continue Reading The EEOC Releases Updated Guidance on Hearing Disabilities and the ADA
On January 10, 2023, the Illinois legislature passed the Paid Leave for All Workers Act (the “PLFAW Act”), with an expected effective date of January 1, 2024. Illinois will join Maine and Nevada as the third state to require private employers to provide to employees earned paid leave that “may be taken by an employee for any reason of the employee’s choosing.” (For a more detailed discussion, click here).
Continue Reading New Law Requires Illinois Employers to Provide Paid Leave for Any Reason
Model Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy Updates
New York law requires employers to maintain written sexual harassment policies and the New York State Department of Labor (“DOL”) has provided employers with model policies to use as guidance. On January 12, 2023, the New York DOL released its updated Sexual Harassment Prevention Model Policy, which makes the following changes:
Effective September 18, 2023, employers will be required to comply with a new pay transparency law for jobs that can be performed, at least in part, in the state of New York.
The law is similar to the pay transparency statutes of New York City (see link), Westchester County and Ithaca in that the New York State law requires employers (and any agent thereof, such as an employment agency) to include a good-faith minimum and maximum pay range with any external job advertisements or internal postings for transfers and promotions, that can or will be performed, at least in part, in New York State. Unlike the local laws, the state law expressly allows the inclusion of a fixed pay rate or salary, as opposed to a range (although the laws that require a range allow for the minimum and maximum to be the same number). For a commission-based job, the ad or posting may simply state compensation is by commission.
Continue Reading New York State Enacts a Pay Transparency Law
Starting February 19, 2023, employers will not be able to discipline employees for certain types of absences. Section 215 of the New York Labor Law (NYLL) was amended to prohibit employers from taking adverse action against employees for “any legally protected absence under federal, local, or state law,” including “assessing any demerit, occurrence, or any other point, or deductions from an allotted bank of time, which subjects or could subject an employee to disciplinary action.” Section 215 currently prohibits retaliation against employees who engage in a variety of protected activity, including making complaints about the employer’s violation of any of the provisions of the New York Labor Law, notably including an employer’s pay practices.
Continue Reading New York State Provides Protection for Use of Leaves of Absence
The California Governor has approved AB 2693, extending and modifying employer COVID-19 notification requirements.
In September 2020, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Legislature enacted AB 685 (adding Labor Code section 6409.6), mandating employers notify employees and local and state public health officials of COVID-19 cases in the workplace. The statute was set to expire on January 1, 2023, but the Legislature delayed the sunset provision to January 1, 2024.
Electronic monitoring of employees’ remote work has increased in the last few years as employers have become concerned with employee productivity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Monitoring technology can track the websites an employee visits and for how long, the number of keystrokes or mouse movements an employee has in a given time period, when an employee is away from their computer and even what an employee is typing, reading or watching. Though generally legal, the use of this technology has prompted California to propose a bill aimed at, among other things, restricting employers’ use of such technology to specific times of day, activities and locations.
With the passage of AB 1949, California joins a short but growing list of states that now mandate bereavement leave. AB 1949 amends the California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”), and starting January 1, 2023, employers will be required to provide eligible employees up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave upon the death of a family member. “Family member” includes a child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse, parent-in-law or domestic partner.
Continue Reading California Mandates Five Days of Unpaid Bereavement Leave