The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division recently released an opinion letter finding that employees who qualify for leave under the FMLA may use FMLA leave to work reduced hours until they have exhausted their FMLA leave.

In an effort to remain one of the leading major U.S. cities in environmental conservation, the City of Chicago passed the 2022 Chicago Energy Transformation Code, which amends the previous 2019 code.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (“Appropriations Act”) was signed by President Biden and became law on December 29, 2022. Included in the Appropriations Act is the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“Secure Act”), which includes various changes affecting retirement. Highlighted below are some of the key provisions of the Secure Act.

With 2023 just around the corner, now is the time for employers to prepare for updates and anticipated changes to federal, state and local employment laws.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a new workplace poster titled “Know Your Rights,” which replaces the former “EEO is the Law” poster. Covered employers are required to hang these posters in the workplace.

The United Nations recently described climate change as “the defining crisis of our time.” Further, a flagship UN report on climate change declared that the world is on a fast track to disaster because of rising carbon emissions. As we are all aware, soaring temperatures, more severe and frequent storms, rising sea levels and increased wildfires are among the parade of threats with costly consequences resulting from decades of ignoring climate change. According to Thomson Reuters, insured losses from natural catastrophes such as wildfires and storms have increased by 250% in the last 30 years.

Gould & Ratner presents the next installment of our Construction Interview Series. As a continued effort to keep our clients informed of new building techniques and processes, we will continue to periodically sit down with leaders at some of the most influential companies in the construction industry to discuss their insights on relevant and pressing topics of interest in the industry.

Chicago continues to be at the forefront of combatting sexual harassment in the workplace by further expanding the existing training requirements. Chicago employers have previously been required to provide annual sexual harassment training for employees and supervisors. However, recently, Chicago has increased these requirements by adding an additional hour of “bystander intervention” training.

In the iconic scene from the classic movie "Cool Hand Luke", the role played by character actor Strother Martin famously complains to the character played by Paul Newman: “What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.” Just like the consequences faced by Newman’s character for that failure, the consequences of a failure to communicate on a construction project can also be severe.

The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) issued new rules last week regarding the statutory change to the Illinois Minimum Wage Law, which extends its protections to domestic workers.