State bias law changes don't stop for pandemic

July 2020 employment law letter

Authors:

Steven L. Brenneman, Fox, Swibel, Levin & Carroll, LLP

With so much attention on COVID-19 and its impact on workplace issues, employers may have lost track of some important changes affecting Illinois employers in 2020. Some of the changes took effect July 1. Let's take a look.

Full speed ahead for mandatory harassment training

The Illinois Workplace Transparency Act (WTA) grabbed headlines last year because it ushered in significant new requirements on employers, inspired in part by the #MeToo movement. As we wrote about then, the WTA imposed new restrictions on confidentiality and arbitration agreements, which took effect January 1, 2020. (For more, see "Workplace Transparency Act: confidentiality, arbitration, reporting, oh, my!" in the August 2019 issue of Illinois Employment Law Letter).

The WTA also requires Illinois employers to conduct annual sexual harassment training of all employees working in Illinois, starting in 2020. The required training must include the following minimum components:

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