New employment laws take effect July 1, 2020: What employers need to know

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• To care for a seriously ill child, spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or domestic partner.
• To bond with a minor child within one year of the birth or placement of the child through foster care or adoption.

Exemptions include:

1. nonprofit employers with annual total gross revenue of under $50 million
2. for-profit employers with annual total gross revenue of under $1 million

Beginning July 1, 2020, and every July 1 after that, employers that have had at least one (1) adverse judgment or ruling against it in the preceding calendar year must disclose it to the Illinois Department of Human Rights including the total number of final, non-appealable judgments or final, non-appealable administrative rulings entered against the employer in which there was a finding of sexual harassment or unlawful discrimination.

The Act also requires hotels and casinos to create and implement a written sexual harassment policy to protect the employees against sexual assault and sexual harassment by guests.

Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance requires employers to post schedules 10 days in advance for employees paid less than $26/hour or $50,000/year.

The law applies to businesses in building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, and warehouse services AND with at least 100 employees. Nonprofit organizations with more than 250 employees are required to comply and restaurants with at least 30 locations and 250 employees are covered by the law.

Covered employees must be given:

• Advance notice of work schedule (10 days)
• The right to decline previously unscheduled hours
• 1 hour of Predictability Pay for any shift change within 10 days
• The right to rest by declining work hours less than 10 hours after the end of the previous day’s shift. If they do work a shift that starts less than 10 hours from their last one, employees must be paid 1.25 times their regular pay rate

Note: the Chicago City Council passed an anti-retaliation ordinance that prohibits adverse actions against employees unable to work for reasons due to COVID-19.

Employees can use the Paid Sick Leave they’ve earned when they or a family member is sick, injured, receiving medical care, or is a victim of domestic violence or a sex offense. They can also use Paid Sick Leave when their place of work has been ordered to close due to a public health emergency, or they need to care for a child whose school has been ordered to close due to a public health emergency.

Applies to all employers with at least one covered employee, whether or not the employer has a Chicago worksite.

Hours worked outside Chicago do not count towards the accrual of Paid Sick Leave.

Note: An employee who receives a salary and is exempt from overtime accrues one hour of Paid Sick Leave for each week of employment unless the salaried position is for an amount different from 40 hours worked per week, in which case the rate of accrual shall be 1 hour for every 40 hours of salaried work. 

Employers should keep track of hours worked by non-salaried employees in order to ensure proper accrual.

• Employers may satisfy the workplace posting requirement through their usual methods of communication for such notices, whether by physical posting (measuring 11×17 inches) or electronic notice (via email or other internal communication).
• Employers may also satisfy the individual notice requirement on employees’ first paycheck with either physical or electronic notice (if the employee receives a direct deposit).
• Employers of employees that are now covered employees effective July 1 must provide those individuals with the paid sick leave notice along with their first paycheck subject to the PSLO.
• All notices must be provided in English and any language(s) spoken by employees at the facility who are not proficient in English and in which the Department has made a notice available (as of now, only Spanish).

Records related to paid sick leave usage, rates of pay, hours worked and wage deductions must be kept for at least five (5) years, and made available for inspection upon request by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Employers with tipped and non-tipped employees must identify whether an employee is tipped, non-tipped, or performs duties of tipped and non-tipped positions in their records.

Employers also are prohibited from making any employment decision based on:

• arrests or pending criminal charges; and
• convictions that have been erased, expunged, pardoned, or nullified.

In addition, an employer may only rescind a conditional offer of employment based on a criminal record if they have a legitimate business reason which, according to the ordinance, means:

• Situations where the nature of the criminal conduct has a direct and substantial bearing on the fitness or ability to perform the duties or responsibilities of the position.
• Situations where the granting of employment would involve unreasonable risk of substantial harm to property or to safety of individuals or the public, to business reputation, or business assets.
• Positions working with children, developmentally disabled persons, and vulnerable adults where the applicant has a conviction record of a crime against children or disabled or vulnerable adults, including but not limited to crimes of rape, sexual abuse, incest, prostitution, pimping, pandering, assault, domestic violence, kidnapping, financial exploitation, neglect, abandonment, and child endangerment.
• Situations where an employer must comply with any federal or state law or regulation pertaining to background checks and the criminal conduct is relevant to the applicant’s fitness for the job.

Employees who are covered by family leave insurance can apply for benefits to:

• bond with a child within 12 months of the child’s birth or placement by adoption or foster care. The applicant, or the applicant’s spouse or domestic or civil union partner, must be the child’s biological, adoptive, or foster parent — unless a surrogate carried the child.
• care for a family member with a serious health condition. Supporting documentation from a health care provider is mandatory.
• care for a victim of domestic violence or a sexually violent offense or for a victim’s family member.
• “Family member” means a child, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, spouse, domestic partner, civil union partner, and any other person related by blood to the employee or with whom the employee has a close association that is the equivalent of a family relationship.
• “Child” means a biological, adopted, or foster child, stepchild or legal ward of a parent. A child gained by way of a valid written contract between the parent and a surrogate (gestational carrier) is included in this definition.

Additional updates:

• Employees taking NJ SAFE Leave Act are eligible for NJFLI benefits.
• The seven-day waiting period has been eliminated.
• Employees now have to provide only 15 days of advance notice when requesting intermittent bonding leave. Employees must continue to provide 30 days of advance notice for continuous bonding leave.
• Employers may not refuse to restore an employee to the same or like position after a period of leave.
• Employees have multiple remedies in cases of retaliation.
• The law now includes an anti-retaliation provision prohibiting employers from terminating or harassing a worker because they requested or took leave.

Prohibits employers from classifying workers as “tipped employees” if the worker is prohibited from soliciting tips. The guidance suggests that the new misclassification laws create a private cause of action for individuals to bring claims against employers.

Note: Some provisions of the law do not take effect until January 1, 2021

The update adds new language to include that discrimination on the basis of race includes discrimination because of an individual’s hair style, type, or texture.

Before these updates, the Virginia Human Rights Act mainly applied to employers with more than five and fewer than 15 employees. However, the new rules apply to all employers with 15 or more employees.

The law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for requesting or using a reasonable accommodation for pregnancy or related conditions.

Employers must post information regarding these rights:

• in a conspicuous location in the workplace;
• include the information in employee handbooks;
• and provide the information to new employees, to an employee 10 days after she informs the employer she is pregnant, and to current employees by October 29, 2020

This does not include workers who are predominantly paid through bonuses and commissions, as opposed to a base salary or hourly rate.

Note: if the employer knowingly fails to pay the employee correctly, the law allows for recovery of three times the amount of wages owed, plus 8% interest and fees.

The Virginia Commissioner of Labor and Industry is also authorized to investigate and institute proceedings, including on behalf of multiple employees.

The new law does not apply to “employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants… as part of their essential job functions who disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information,” unless that disclosure is in response to a formal complaint or charge, made in connection with an investigation, proceeding, hearing or action, or is consistent with a legal duty to disclose the information.

• Up to 8 weeks per year to bond with a new child.
• Up to 6 weeks per year to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
• Up to 2 weeks per year to care for the employee’s own serious health condition.

Employers must maintain all records relating to employee leave (including payroll records and notices provided) for a minimum of three (3) years.

Wherever possible, employees must provide ten (10) days of advance written notice to their employers of the need to take paid leave. If they have a qualifying event, employees may file a claim for paid leave benefits with the Department of Employment Services.