- Rights to
Navigating Conflicts of Belief in the UK Workplace
With thanks to Monica Kurnatowska, partner in our London office.
In the UK, in principle, it is possible for employers to restrict employees’ expressions of views. But where those views reflect a religious or other belief protected under the Equality Act 2010, the scope to do so is far more limited. A number of employment
Spring Cleaning: Review & Refresh Your Remote Work Policies And Practices For Your Global Workforce This Season
- Enhanced risk for bias suits targeting remote staff for layoffs
- More ADA claims alleging mishandling of accommodation requests
- Changes to digital nomad visas in different jurisdictions around the globe, and
- The critical need to identify where all employees are located when the
Focus on Trade Secrets (Video Chat Series)
Baker McKenzie’s North America Trade Secrets Practice is a true cross-disciplinary team of industry ranked and recognized intellectual property, employment, tech transaction, litigation and trial attorneys exclusively dedicated to helping clients identify, protect, prosecute and defend their most valuable, complex and market-differentiating trade secrets throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and globally.
Our Focus on Trade
Catch-Up Cupid: Late Employee Noncompete Notices May Still Hit the Mark in California (Video Chat)
California’s regulators have made employment noncompetes (and knowing which employees are bound by them and how!) a key compliance item.
Effective January 1, 2024, AB 1076 amends Section 16600 of the state’s Business and Professions Code to “void the application of any noncompete agreement in an employment context, or any noncompete clause in an employment
The Year Ahead: Global Disputes Forecast 2024 (Webinar Recording)
Special thanks to Celeste Ang and Stephen Ratcliffe.
We launched the seventh annual edition of The Year Ahead: Global Disputes Forecast, a research-based thought leadership surveying 600 senior legal and risk leaders from large organizations around the world and highlights key issues we anticipate to be crucial for disputes for this year.
Spring into Compliance: Our 2024 Planning Checklists for Employers in California, Illinois and New York
Is The Risk Calculus Related To Workplace DEI Shifting For US Employers This Election Year?
The US Supreme Court’s SFFA decision ending affirmative action in higher education continues to have ramifications for corporate America. Attacks to workplace DEI are gaining momentum with targeted challenges from a variety of angles, not the least of which are those coming from conservative advocacy groups filing lawsuits, requesting agency investigations and pursuing other complaints. Just last week, as many prepared to watch Taylor Swift’s boyfriend perform in the Super Bowl, America First Legal (a nonprofit founded by a former adviser to Donald Trump) filed an EEOC complaint against the NFL challenging the Rooney Rule, a widely used hiring practice that emanated in the NFL and is followed across corporate America. For in-house counsel, this just further emphasizes the need to continue to diligently monitor the changing DEI landscape for signals warranting targeted audits or adjustments to workplace DEI programming.
When should in-house counsel take action? Let’s start to answer that question by looking at where we are now and the escalation of events in the past 7 months.
Timeline of Recent Material Attacks on Workplace ID&E
July 2023 | Letter to Employers from 13 State AGs
Thirteen attorneys general used SFFA to support their opposition to corporate DEI programs (see letter to Fortune 100 CEOs here). In response, attorneys general from other states wrote to the same CEOs stating that SFFA “does not prohibit, or even impose new limits on, the ability of private employers to pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Continue Reading Is The Risk Calculus Related To Workplace DEI Shifting For US Employers This Election Year?
Don’t Miss California’s Noncompete Notice Requirement (Deadline 2/14/24) |Review Equity Award Agreements & Other Employment-Related Contracts ASAP
Special thanks to co-authors Thomas Asmar, Victor Flores, Denise Glagau, Christopher Guldberg, Jen Kirk, Maura Ann McBreen, Lindsay Minnis, Kela Shang, Aimee Soodan and Brian Wydajewski.
As many readers likely know, last fall California doubled-down on the state’s hostility to noncompete agreements. Assembly Bill 1076 codified the landmark 2008 Edward v. Arthur Andersen decision that invalidated all employment noncompetes, including narrowly tailored ones, unless they satisfy a statutory exception.
AB 1076 also added new Business & Professions Code §16600.1, requiring California employers to notify current (and certain former) employees that any noncompete agreement or clause to which they may be subject is void (unless it falls within one of the limited statutory exceptions).
Individualized written notice must be sent by February 14, 2024 or significant penalties may apply.
Continue Reading Don’t Miss California’s Noncompete Notice Requirement (Deadline 2/14/24) |Review Equity Award Agreements & Other Employment-Related Contracts ASAP
A Legislative Snowstorm: Key 2024 Updates for Illinois Employers Include a Number of New Leave Obligations and More
Illinois employers navigated an avalanche of new laws in 2023, with more on the horizon in 2024 (and even 2025). New paid leave obligations for Illinois (and Chicago and Cook County) employers are a significant change, and additional developments expand employer liability in some circumstances where individuals are victims of gender-related violence. There are also new obligations for employers who use temporary employees, and increased protections for striking workers–not to mention a soon-to-be requirement for employers to include pay scale and benefits information in job postings starting January 1, 2025.
Here are key updates that Illinois employers should be aware of for 2024–and beyond.
1. New paid leave laws in Illinois, Chicago and Cook County
Employers in Illinois, Chicago and Cook County have new paid leave obligations for 2024 under three new laws:
- The Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act (PLAWA) (effective January 1, 2024) requires Illinois employers to provide most employees with a minimum of 40 hours of paid leave per year to be used for any reason at all–not just for sick leave.
- The Cook County Paid Leave Ordinance (effective December 31, 2023, the sunset date of the prior Cook County Earned Sick Leave Ordinance) covers employees who work in Cook County and largely mirrors the PLAWA. The Cook County Commission on Human Rights will begin enforcement of the paid leave Ordinance on February 1, 2024.
- The Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance (effective July 1, 2024) will require covered employers to provide eligible employees 40 hours of paid sick leave and 40 hours of paid leave (the latter usable for any reason) per 12-month accrual period, for a total entitlement of up to 80 hours of PTO per 12-month period.
Importantly, under both the PLAWA and the Cook County Paid Leave Ordinance:
- Eligible employees earn 1 hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to a minimum of 40 hours in a 12-month period (with exempt employees presumed to work 40 hours per workweek for accrual purposes, but leave accrues based on their regular workweek if their regular workweek is less than 40 hours)
- Though unused accrued paid leave from one 12-month period can be carried over to the next, employers can cap the use of paid leave in one 12-month period to 40 hours
- Frontloading is permitted, and employers who frontload 40 hours at the beginning of the 12-month period are not required to carry over unused accrued paid leave
- Employers cannot require employees to provide a reason they are using paid leave, or any documentation or certification as proof or in support of paid leave
The Chicago Paid Leave Ordinance diverges from the PLAWA and the Cook County Ordinance in several ways, including:
- Covered employees will accrue one hour of paid sick leave and one hour of paid leave for every 35 hours worked-five hours less than what is required to accrue an hour of paid leave under the PLAWA or Cook County Ordinance
- Employees may carryover up to 80 hours of paid sick leave and up to 16 hours of paid leave from one 12-month accrual period to the next
- Employers may frontload 40 hours of paid sick leave and 40 hours of paid leave on the first day of the 12-month accrual period. Frontloaded paid leave does not carry over from one 12-month period to the next (unless the employer prevents the employee from having meaningful access to their PTO), but up to 80 hours of unused paid sick leave does
- Employers with more than 50 employees in Chicago are required to pay the employee the monetary equivalent of unused accrued paid leave when an employee separates from the employer or transfers outside of the City of Chicago (see chart below for specifics)
- Unlike in the PLAWA or Cook County Ordinance, unlimited PTO is specifically addressed in the Chicago Paid Leave Ordinance (so employers with unlimited PTO policies should review the Ordinance closely)