by: Alexander J. Mezny The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals covers Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. The Seventh Circuit previously invalidated arbitration agreements which required employees’ claims to be brought individually and not as class actions. The Seventh Circuit reasoned that such waivers violated employees’ right to engage in concerted activities under the National Labor Relations […]
Alexander Mezny June 14th, 2018
Posted In: Civil Litigation
by: Alexander J. Mezny The United States Supreme Court has just rejected 50 years of precedent holding that overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) must be narrowly construed against the employer. The case, Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Hector Navarro, et al., involved one of the many industry-specific exemptions to the FLSA – […]
Alexander Mezny April 19th, 2018
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Alexander J. Mezny The Illinois Sick Leave Act (the “Act”) requires businesses to allow use of existing sick leave to care for certain family members. Only one year old, the Act has already been expanded to include step-children and domestic partners (it already covered the employee’s child, spouse, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, […]
Alexander Mezny January 31st, 2017
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Policies & Agreements
By: Alexander J. Mezny The Illinois Freedom to Work Act bars employers from entering into covenants not to compete with employees who earn $13 per hour or less, effective January 1, 2017. Once the minimum wage increases beyond $13 per hour, the minimum wage will become the new threshold. The Act will not affect pre-existing […]
Alexander Mezny September 28th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor, Policies & Agreements
By: Alexander J. Mezny On May 11, 2016, the President signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), which amends the Economic Espionage Act to create a federal civil cause of action for theft of trade secrets. While mostly similar to the Illinois Trade Secrets Act, it allows a court in exceptional circumstances to […]
Alexander Mezny May 23rd, 2016
Posted In: Privacy, Security & Information Technology, Trade Secrets
By: Alexander J. Mezny Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) protects the rights of nonunionized as well as union employees who are not supervisors to engage in concerted and other protected activities, including discussion of wages and terms and conditions of employment with others. 29 U.S.C. § 157. The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) […]
Alexander Mezny March 24th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Alexander J. Mezny On January 20, 2016, the US Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued an Administrator Interpretation departing from the traditional joint employment tests with the express intent to ensure that “the scope of employment relationships and joint employment under the FLSA … is as broad as possible.” The DOL seeks to address the increasing […]
Alexander Mezny March 24th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Alexander J. Mezny Social media can be a fun and rewarding way to share your life and opinions with family, friends and co-workers. Use of social media also presents certain risks and carries with it certain responsibilities. Protect Yourself When signing on to any social network, go to the privacy settings first and make the […]
Alexander Mezny February 11th, 2016
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Alexander J. Mezny Illinois recently amended the Employee Classification Act. The Act is designed to discourage employers from classifying individuals as independent contractors to avoid certain employer-related responsibilities, such as employment taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, unemployment insurance, and overtime pay. Under the amendments, agents or officers of a corporation who knowingly permit such violations may […]
Alexander Mezny November 26th, 2013
Posted In: Employment & Labor
By: Alexander J. Mezny In Illinois, a post-employment restrictive covenant which prohibits a former employee from competing or soliciting customers must satisfy three requirements: (1) it must be ancillary to a valid contract or relationship; (2) the length of time the restriction applies must be reasonable, as must the provision’s geographical reach and the limitations […]
Alexander Mezny November 26th, 2013
Posted In: Privacy, Security & Information Technology