The New Yr will usher in a number of new Illinois employment legal guidelines. These legal guidelines cowl a myriad of matters and would require revisions to worker handbooks and common employment insurance policies.
Illinois Senate Invoice 3120, efficient January 1, 2023, expands the protections afforded beneath the Little one Bereavement Depart Act (the “CBLA”), 820 ILCS 154/ et seq.[1] Beneath the prevailing CBLA, Illinois workers are entitled to make use of a most of two weeks (10 work days) of unpaid bereavement go away for the next causes: to attend the funeral or various to a funeral of a kid; make preparations necessitated by the loss of life of a kid; or grieve the loss of life of a kid. The CBLA defines “baby” as worker’s son or daughter who’s a organic, adopted, or foster baby, a stepchild, a authorized ward, or a toddler of an individual standing in loco parentis.
The amended CBLA, now titled the Household Bereavement Depart Act (“FBLA”), broadens the scope of the CBLA by increasing the supply of unpaid bereavement go away to cowl further relations and causes for go away. The FBLA gives for bereavement go away for the loss of life of a “lined member of the family,” which now consists of an worker’s baby, stepchild, partner, home companion, sibling, guardian, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or step-parent.
The FBLA additionally gives that workers are entitled to this go away attributable to (i) a miscarriage; (ii) an unsuccessful spherical of intrauterine insemination or of an assisted reproductive know-how process (resembling Invitro Fertilization); (iii) a failed adoption match or an adoption that’s not finalized as a result of it’s contested by one other get together; (iv) a failed surrogacy settlement; (v) a prognosis that negatively impacts being pregnant or fertility; or (vi) a stillbirth. Importantly, whereas an employer could require the worker present documentation supporting the go away request, the employer can’t require, as a situation of exercising rights beneath the Act, the worker determine to which class of occasion the go away pertains.
Additionally efficient January 1, 2023, Illinois Senate Invoice 3616 amends the Illinois Human Rights Act (the “IHRA”) and broadens the scope of the IHRA’s protections. The IHRA at the moment prohibits discrimination and retaliation based mostly upon race and varied different protected classes. The IHRA’s modification expands the definition of “race” beneath the IHRA to incorporate traits related to race, together with however not restricted to hair texture and protecting hairstyles resembling braids, locks, and twists.
The New Yr additionally marks employers’ new reporting obligations to the Illinois Division of Labor. The necessities, rooted in a March 2021 modification to the Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003 (the “Act”), require non-public companies with 100 or extra workers in Illinois, which might be required to file an EEO-1 report with the Equal Employment Alternative Fee, to report sure worker payroll and variety data to the IDOL, together with new pay information reporting and certification necessities, amongst others.
Moreover, starting on January 1, 2023, lined Illinois employers[2] want to incorporate in annual company reviews filed with the Illinois Secretary of State gender, race and ethnicity employment information, much like the data contained in Part D of the EEO-1 doc. The Secretary of State will publish the info of every company’s workers on its official web site inside 90 days of receipt of a correctly filed annual report.
Lastly, the New Yr marks necessary modifications to the One Day Relaxation In Seven Act (the “ODRISA”). The ODRISA initially supplied that employers should allow workers who work for 7 ½ steady hours or longer at the least 20 minutes for a meal interval starting no later than 5 hours after the beginning of the work interval.
The modification delineates between the remainder durations for these workers who work 7 ½ hours and for individuals who work for 7 ½ steady hours or longer. Particularly, whereas the employer’s obligation to supply workers who work precisely 7 ½ hours at the least 20 minutes for a meal interval starting no later than 5 hours after the beginning of the work interval stays intact, workers who work in extra of seven ½ steady hours are entitled to an extra 20-minute meal interval for each further 4 ½ steady hours labored.
The ODRISA modification additionally imposes larger penalties upon non-complying employers. The unique ODRISA merely supplied that employers violating ODRISA can be fined for every offense in a sum of not lower than $25 nor greater than $100.
Starting in January, non-compliant employers might be topic to a civil penalty of as much as $500 per offense. To that finish, every week an worker will not be allowed 24 consecutive hours of relaxation constitutes a separate offense. Likewise, every day an worker will not be supplied a meal interval constitutes a separate offense. These amendments underscore the significance the legislature locations upon relaxation and meal durations and the possibly vital prices of non-compliance.
It is crucial for employers to implement these modifications and revise worker handbooks in anticipation of the legal guidelines’ impending January 1, 2023 efficient date. It’s also necessary for employers to coach administration and management on these new necessities and guarantee they perceive the corporate’s obligations. Sheppard Mullin attorneys can be found and able to help employers as they navigate the brand new legal guidelines and implement them of their workplaces.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The CBLA applies to Illinois employers with 50 or extra workers.
[2] The brand new requirement applies to all companies doing enterprise in Illinois which might be required to file an EEO-1 report with the Equal Employment Alternative Fee.
