January 2024 Client Alert

Client alert

January 2024

Protecting Employers Since 1985

In this issue:

New Year's Resolutions for Employers
Employee Handbook Clauses to Avoid
2024 - New Illinois Employment Laws
Illinois One Day Rest in Seven Act and Meal Breaks

Questions? Contact Jim by email or at (952)746-1700

Three New Year's Resolutions for Employers in 2024

By James B. Sherman Esq.

The beginning of a new year is a time of reflection and resolve for positive change. Resolutions for self-improvement on health, relationships, and other personal goals abound. Some will fail to materialize. Many will be short-lived. However, in the business world changes are often imposed by law and cannot so easily be ignored. Here are some suggested resolutions for employers to consider going forward in 2024:

Improve employee communications – A variety of laws require a broad array of notices that must be given to employees regarding newly legislated rights. Instead of merely covering what legislators want communicated to employees, employers should try to improve their own communications on expectations for employee performance, customer satisfaction, quality, etc.
Beware the temptation to dive headlong into DEI – the past few years may have been the era of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), but employers who took this well intended concept too seriously and began implementing quotas, or preferences of one group over another in the name of equality, have begun to find themselves being sued by those who are excluded from jobs, schools, or other opportunities in the name of DEI. It turns out DEI is not a defense to a discrimination claim and so it remains a sound practice for employers to hire, promote, etc. based on legitimate business factors such as qualifications.

Employee Handbook Review - Five Clauses to Avoid at All Costs

By Alan E. Seneczko, Esq.

As the calendar flips to January, many companies take the opportunity to review and fine tune their employee handbooks. Having reviewed (and litigated) countless handbooks over the years, I have come upon a number of provisions that generally create more problems than they purport to solve and should be avoided at all costs. Here are five of the most problematic:

“Fair and Equitable” – It is not unusual for employers include in their “Introduction” (or elsewhere), a promise to treat all employees “fairly and equitably.” While this is certainly a laudable aspiration, it is best demonstrated in practice, not promised in writing. Who decides what is “fair” or “equitable”? Is it a promise you can keep? Do you want to litigate whether your decision was equitable? Even if you have an “at will” confirmation in your handbook, this “promise” can come still back to haunt you in other ways. My recommendation: Practice it, don’t promise it.

Questions? Contact Al by email or at (262)560-9696

Questions? Contact Tony by email or at (630)377-1554

Update - New Employment Laws for Illinois in 2024

By Anthony J. Caruso, Jr., Esq.

The Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act takes effect January 1,2024. The Waiting Period of 90 days before workers can take paid leave ends on March 31, 2024. The notice of the law required to be posted by employers is provided by the Illinois Department and is available on their website.

The City of Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick Leave Ordinance was originally scheduled to take effect December 31, 2023. However, a “trailer” ordinance has postponed the enactment to July 1, 2024.

Child Bereavement Leave if an employee experiences the loss of a child by suicide or homicide takes effect on January 1, 2024.

Illinois's One Day Rest in Seven Act and Meal Breaks: What to Do When Employees Work Beyond their Scheduled Hours?

By John D. Simmons, Esq.

On January 1, 2023, Illinois amended Its One Day Rest in Seven Act, or ODRISA, to increase worker protections both in work scheduling, and by updating required meal periods for employees who work a certain number of hours in a given day. You are no doubt aware that Section 3 of ODRISA requires that employees who work for 7 1/2 continuous hours are to be provided at least 20 minutes for a meal period beginning no later than 5 hours after the start of the work period, and employees who are to work more than 7 1/2 hours are entitled to an additional 20-minute meal period for every additional 4 1/2 hours worked. These requirements are easy to predict and navigate when you are dealing with regularly scheduled employees, but become more complicated when you have an employee covering for a coworker who did not appear for their shift.

We have seen businesses receiving Illinois Department of Labor complaints about employees whose eight-hour shifts required virtually no work activities, who were free to eat at their leisure throughout their shift, the employees essentially being paid just to be present, and yet still considered a violation where a 20-minute meal period was not explicitly provided.

Questions? Contact John by phone at (563)333-9102 or by email

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