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Employment Law

OK to consider qualifications that aren’t in job description when setting pay

04/01/2008
Setting compensation for a highly skilled job applicant may mean having to offer more money than currently paid to employees performing the same type of job. But what if a current employee sues, alleging the pay disparity constitutes some form of discrimination? Can you avoid liability? …

No separate emotional distress claims if conduct is covered by IHRA

04/01/2008
Employees and their lawyers are always looking for ways to increase the damages they can extract from employers that make mistakes. Fortunately, they can’t heap additional claims on top of a basic claim made on similar grounds under the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA). If the IHRA provides a remedy, that’s the only one available for the same basic claim …

Manager blows whistle on suspected fraud at Grainger

04/01/2008
Brian Holbrook, a former district sales manager for W.W. Grainger Inc., an international maintenance supplier based in Lake Forest, has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit claiming the company repeatedly overcharged the U.S. government for its products …

Springfield to pay officer $150,000 for ongoing discrimination

04/01/2008
The city of Springfield must pay $150,000 to former patrol officer Rickey Davis, who sued the city for discrimination and retaliation. The U.S. District Court, Central District, in Springfield, denied the city’s appeal for a new trial …

Illinois DOL announces first victory under Equal Pay Act

04/01/2008
The Illinois Department of Labor has won its first case under the state’s Equal Pay Act, which went into effect in 2004. A female clerk for Main Street Liquors in Chicago filed a complaint after she discovered she was earning less than a male clerk for performing the same work …

Wage-and-Hour suits hot

04/01/2008
Wage-and-hour lawsuits are growing exponentially, according to the fourth Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report from national law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Illinois was one of the states experiencing the most significant growth in wage-and-hour filings …

CVS fined for child labor, overtime and timecard violations

04/01/2008
CVS Caremark Corp. was fined $226,000 by the U.S. Labor Department for changing employee timecards and violating child labor laws. The department found 43 violations at stores in seven states …

Termination after maternity leave may violate the FMLA

04/01/2008
Not every employee wants to take FMLA leave, and employers sometimes don’t designate paid time off as FMLA time. But an employee doesn’t have to request FMLA leave in order to be protected by the law. That means you can’t refuse to reinstate an employee when she returns from leave. Doing so would amount to interference with the right to FMLA leave …

Bathroom breaks may be mandatory

04/01/2008
Welcome another set of employees to those covered by the ADA: employees who have bladder problems and can’t be far from a restroom at any given time. An employer will have to decide whether a particular employee’s need for bathroom breaks means she can’t perform the essential functions of her job or should be reasonably accommodated …

Caution on mandatory arbitration! Decisions almost impossible to overturn

04/01/2008
Lots of employers insist their employees sign agreements mandating arbitration to resolve employment law disputes. Conventional wisdom suggests that such alternative dispute resolution is less costly, less time-consuming and less risky than a jury trial. But conventional wisdom may be wrong …