Is it High Time to Protect Cannabis Users?

On March 3rd, 2022, the Illinois House approved a bill containing workplace protections for employees who are legal cannabis consumers. This bill aims to ensure that workers are not fired for legally using cannabis during off hours.

Many employers still choose to drug test employees.  Since Illinois legalized recreational marijuana use, employees have been …

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Biden to Sign Law Ending Mandatory Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Cases

Congress recently passed the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021” (H.R. 4445).  This bill received increasingly rare bipartisan support and we expect President Biden to sign it into law any day.

Let’s take a quick look at what this law does and what it means …

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Despite Supreme Court’s ruling, employers may still develop their own vaccine mandates.

On January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked OSHA from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate for employers with 100 or more workers.  Read below to see what this means for employers and employees.

The ETS initially required employers with 100 or more employees to develop mandatory vaccination …

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Federal Court Decides Covid-19 is Not a “Transitory and Minor” Disability Exempted from ADA protections
What happens if fired for testing positive for COVID

First, trust that you are not alone in worrying about this.  Employment lawyers have been wondering the same thing.  Since the expiration of the FFCRA last December, there has been nothing explicitly prohibiting termination of a Covid positive …

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Chicago Passes COVID-19 Anti-Retaliation Ordinance

When COVID first hit, the federal government passed the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (“FFCRA”). The FFCRA provided all kinds of protections for employees, including paid and protected leave for those diagnosed, quarantining and/or caring for someone diagnosed or quarantining for COVID. Unfortunately, the FFCRA expired in December of 2020 and Congress did not bother to …

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In 2016, the Illinois legislature passed the Illinois Freedom to Work Act which banned non-competes, one type of restrictive covenants, for employees earning minimum wage or less.  If you recall, this Act was a direct response to the Jimmy John’s non-compete debacle.  In that instance, the Illinois Attorney General sued Jimmy Johns and the sandwich-maker relented.

While that Act was a good …

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Kristin Case and Kate Sedey have once again been recognized by their peers and the Illinois Super Lawyers Association.  Ms. Case and Ms. Sedey were rated  “Super Lawyers” for their work in the field of employment and labor and for their work in litigating employment-related matters.  Kristin has now been recognized by Illinois Super Lawyers every year since 2010 and …

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With the recent rollouts of the first available vaccines, one of the questions we have heard a lot of lately is: Can my employer require me to get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Late last month, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released updated guidance on the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees related to the COVID-19 vaccine. You might remember this …

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Today is a big day for workers in Illinois and Chicago! The Illinois minimum wage has increased for the second time since January and Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance is also in effect beginning today. We hope that these changes will help provide financial stability to hard working employees throughout our city and state!

As a part of a multi year-plan to …

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To simplify things for employees looking for guidance and answers in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, we’ve put together a COVID-19 resource page on our site.  We’ll keep it active on the website as long as the information remains useful, and we will update it regularly to ensure you have access to the most up to date answers and …

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