On March 15, 2023, the Chicago City Council overwhelmingly voted to approve an ordinance requiring labor peace agreements between workers and Chicago-funded nonprofit organizations providing critical public health and social...more
4/6/2023
/ City of Chicago ,
Contractors ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Illinois ,
Labor Reform ,
Labor Relations ,
Local Ordinance ,
Public Health Service (PHS) ,
Social Services ,
Tax Exempt Entities ,
Unions
On September 6, the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) issued a proposed rule to revise the current standard to determine whether employers are “joint employers” under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The...more
9/30/2022
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Comment Period ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Reform ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Proposed Rules ,
Public Comment ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Wage and Hour
In Tesla Inc., the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) recently reversed a 2019 decision in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that gave employers leeway when adopting neutral non-discriminatory dress codes. Instead, the Board applied...more
9/7/2022
/ Dress Codes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Tesla ,
Union Insignia ,
Union Organizers ,
Unions ,
Wal-Mart
In a February 3, 2022 decision in Marquita McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park LLC, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that employee claims for damages for violations of their statutory privacy rights under the Illinois...more
2/15/2022
/ Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Personal Data ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Preemption ,
Statutory Violations ,
Workers Compensation Act
Yesterday, a federal district court judge from the Northern District of Indiana denied the issuance of a preliminary injunction that would have halted Indiana University’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students. This decision...more
The Sunshine State will once again be the center of national attention in what could be one of the first battles before the Biden NLRB regarding the ever-shifting issue of the Board’s jurisdiction over religious educational...more
On December 17, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a community college violated the Illinois Public Community College Act when it replaced laid off tenured faculty members with adjunct faculty. The case addressed...more
In a decision applauded by citizens of the City of Chicago and its leadership, the Illinois Supreme Court found that a provision in the collective bargaining agreement between the Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge No....more
6/26/2020
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Document Destruction ,
Electronically Stored Information ,
Law Enforcement ,
Police ,
Police Brutality ,
Police Misconduct ,
Public Access Laws ,
Public Policy ,
Public Records ,
Right To Know ,
State and Local Government ,
Transparency
On August 27, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 101-0591, which added Section 24A-5.5 to the School Code. Section 24A-5.5 requires school districts to create an appeals process for teachers who receive...more
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Dynak v. Board of Education of Wooddale School District 7 that a teacher’s use of paid sick leave for the birth of a child must be taken during the six-week period immediately following the...more
On April 13, 2020, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission (IWCC) issued an emergency rule creating a rebuttable presumption that first responders and other essential workers identified in Governor Pritzker’s March 20...more
On March 19, 2020, the National Labor Relations Board (“Board)” suspended all representation elections, including mail ballot elections, until April 3, 2020. This week, the Board announced it will not extend its temporary...more
As we previously reported, on March 27, 2020, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Governor issued several resource documents that address changes to the remote learning landscape in Illinois schools during...more
Senate Bill 1784, which passed both houses of the General Assembly and currently is awaiting the Governor’s signature, contains several provisions that weaken the impact of the United States Supreme Court’s Janus decision and...more
12/19/2019
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Fair Share Contribution ,
First Amendment ,
Janus v AFSCME ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Non-Union ,
Payroll Deductions ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Sector Unions ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Union Dues
Earlier this month, the Seventh Circuit joined the consensus across the country, concluding in two separate cases that unions that collected fair share fees prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, 585,...more
11/26/2019
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Defense Strategies ,
Fair Share Contribution ,
First Amendment ,
Good Faith ,
Janus v AFSCME ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Non-Union ,
Payroll Deductions ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Restitution ,
SCOTUS ,
Union Dues ,
Unions
On October 1, a federal trial court in Massachusetts upheld Harvard University’s use of race in its admissions process against a challenge that the policy discriminates against Asian-American students on the basis of race....more
The National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) is inviting input “to aid the Board in reconsidering the standards for determining whether profane outbursts and offensive statements of a racial or sexual nature, made in the...more
The seemingly never-ending debate over private sector college- and university-student employment status continues. On Friday, September 20, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced its intent to propose a rule...more
9/30/2019
/ Collective Bargaining ,
Colleges ,
Comment Period ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Graduate Students ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
NPRM ,
Proposed Rules ,
Student Employees ,
Students ,
Teaching Assistants ,
Unions ,
Universities
On August 23, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 101-531 (Act) which puts into place a number of measures aimed at increasing student safety....more
9/25/2019
/ Charter Schools ,
Child Abuse ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Disciplinary Proceedings ,
Educational Institutions ,
Failure to Report ,
Felons ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Investigations ,
ISBE ,
License Suspensions ,
Licensing Rules ,
New Legislation ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Professional Development ,
Public Acts ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Safety Standards ,
Sex Offenders ,
State and Local Government ,
Students
In a significant decision for employers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) provided new guidance addressing the intersection of arbitration agreements and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRB’s recent...more
9/18/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Collective Actions ,
Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Labor Regulations ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
New Guidance ,
NLRA ,
NLRB
On August 27, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed into law Public Act 101-0591 (formerly Senate Bill 1213), creating an appeals process for teachers who receive unsatisfactory summative ratings. Beginning with the 2019-2020 school...more
On August 9, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued the first of its planned series of highly anticipated proposed amendments to its union election procedures. These proposed amendments follow the NLRB’s...more
8/15/2019
/ Blocking Statutes ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Construction Industry ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Relations ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Unfair Labor Practices ,
Union Elections ,
Union Representatives ,
Unions
No ripped jeans. No sagging pants. No satin caps or bonnets. These are a few of the new dress code rules for parents set forth by a principal at a Texas High School. Although school dress codes for students are commonplace,...more
On January 25, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued its decision in SuperShuttle DFW, Inc. and Amalgamated Transit Union, overturning the Obama-era decision in FedEx Home Delivery, which downplayed the...more
As widely anticipated, the U.S. Supreme Court just held by a 5-4 vote that fair share agreements are unconstitutional. (Janus v. AFSCME). The decision is effective immediately and requires all public bodies to cease...more
6/28/2018
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Fair Share Contribution ,
First Amendment ,
Janus v AFSCME ,
Non-Union ,
Payroll Deductions ,
Public Sector Unions ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Stare Decisis ,
Union Dues