Wage & Hour Smackdown: Plaintiffs’ Bar v. Defense Bar on Recent Developments and the Coronavirus Times

Understand best practices when it comes to: termination provisions (For Cause and Good Reason), severance provisions, restrictive covenant provisions, arbitration provisions, the protection of intellectual property, tax issues and more.

Many employers are addressing whether to reduce the amount of work and headcount of their workforce. When the COVID-19 pandemic is over, employers who acted without carefully evaluating their options and decisions in how they reduced hours and positions, as well as how the decisions were communicated to employees, could face years of legal challenges on top of economic issues. Our panel discusses ways to reduce your legal exposure in these unprecedented times. Topics include:What is a furlough, and what are ways to implement one or more? What are alternatives to reductions in force? What are the types of separations that trigger federal and state WARN, and what are the potential penalties? What should be in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice? COVID-19 and the “unforeseeable business circumstance” provision of WARN. Can an employer do something post-furlough besides a RIF if revenue hasn’t resumed? Severance and release agreement best practices

Ensure training, policies and procedures reflect the most recent developments in Illinois impacted by Coronavirus/COVID-19, and what do you need to address outside of the pandemic that includes recent Illinois and local laws that have taken effect since 2019. The following should be on your radar: Illinois Workplace Transparency Act (effective 2020); Illinois Human Rights Act (recent amendments and developments addressing discrimination based on sexual harassment, disability, national origin/ancestry, retaliation); Victims Economic Security and Safety Act (VESSA); Amendments to the Illinois Equal Pay Act of 2003, and the Wage Payment and Collection Act – addressing equal pay (effective January 2019 and September 2019; Chicago Fair Work Week; Illinois Expense Reimbursement Act; and temporary measures to put in place given Governor Pritzker’s “Stay at Home” Order. Laws in Illinois pertaining to paid leaves, unpaid leaves, unemployment compensation benefits, workers’ compensation, safety, and terminations