January 10, 2023
By: Key Updates to Illinois Employee Handbooks for 2023

All employers should update their employee handbook at least annually to be certain that the handbook complies with new laws. Here are the top updates that every Illinois employer should be making to their employee handbook:

Update your discrimination policy and dress code policy. Unlawful discrimination based on race now includes discrimination based on “traits associated with race, including hair texture and protected hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists.” Similarly, employee dress code and grooming policies may not prohibit such hair styles.

Update your bereavement leave policy. Illinois employers with more than 50 employees may need to update their bereavement leave. Illinois employers covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) must allow employees to use up to 2 weeks (10 workdays) of unpaid leave for bereavement leave of any covered family member. The reasons for taking bereavement leave were expanded to include absence due to (i) miscarriage; (ii) unsuccessful assisted reproductive technology or insemination procedure, (iii) failed adoption, (iv) failed surrogacy, (v) negative fertility diagnosis, or (vi) stillbirth. This is a material departure from the previous Illinois law which only required employers to provide unpaid leave to grieve the death of a child.

Update your schedule policies. Illinois employers must already provide 24 hours off for employees that work 6 consecutive days in a calendar week. This was updated to replace the words “calendar week” with “seven-day period”. This subtle change means that the law now applies to any employee working 6 consecutive days regardless of whether they fall within a traditional Sunday to Saturday calendar.

Update your meal break policy. Employers must provide a second unpaid 20-minute meal break to employees that work a 12 hour shift to take place during the last 4.5 hours of the shift. If meal breaks provided to employees are unpaid, then the breaks must be increased to 30 minutes or the employer risks accusation that the break is a “rest period” instead of a meal break.

In addition, employers should be tracking the development of possible federal law generally prohibiting all non-competition agreements. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule on January 5, 2023 that would prohibit most non-compete agreements with employees and independent contractors, and would retroactively invalidate already existing non-compete agreements. Although this has not been finalized, employers should begin thinking about how to adequately protect their trade secrets and other sensitive information.