Effective January 1, 2020, SB 75 requires major changes to Illinois Employment Laws: New mandatory sexual harassment training, reporting and disclosure requirement, restrictions on employment agreements, and other mandates.
Maggie Peck, Human and Administrative Resources Director with the City of Sycamore will facilitate the training on Wednesday, January 15 at the DCCF Freight Room.
Workplace Transparency Act
SB 75 creates the Workplace Transparency Act (WTA). This act prohibits any “contract, agreement, clause, covenant, waiver or other document” from restricting an employee from reporting allegations of unlawful conduct to federal, state or local officials for investigation. The WTA does not apply, however to collective bargaining agreements covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
In sum, employers may not unilaterally compel an employee to keep silent about alleged unlawful employment practices in the workplace.
Most significant, any contract or the like that requires an employee to waive or arbitrate existing or future claims of unlawful employment practices is “void to the extent that it denies the employee a substantive or procedural right or remedy.” The WTA defines an “unlawful employment practice” to cover employment discrimination or harassment based on any protected category or retaliation for complaining of such discrimination or harassment.
Illinois employers will thus need to rethink the language used in their standard arbitration agreements to the extent that such agreements are conditioned on employment or continued employment. As a minor concession to employers with existing arbitration agreements, the WTA does provide for the severability of non-compliant terms from an otherwise enforceable agreement.
$10 fee – Space is limited please email office@sycamorechamber.com or call 815-895-3456 to reserve your space now.
