Archive for September, 2010

Illinois Employers of 50 or more Employees

Posted in Legislative Updates on September 2nd, 2010 by dslivinski – Comments Off
Gov. Quinn has signed into law an expansion of the Illinois Family Military Leave Act which becomes effective January 1, 2011.  Under the expanded provisions of the law, grandparents and adult children (newly added to the Act) as well as the spouse, child, or parent working within organizations employing more than 50 people will now be able to take up to 30 days of job protected unpaid leave from work to be with a military family member before that family member goes to serve on active duty.
 
Affected employers will need to up-date their Family Military Leave Policy, Employee Handbook, and Administrative Procedures by January 1, 2011 to be in legal compliance.

Illinois Employee Privacy Act

Posted in Legislative Updates on September 2nd, 2010 by dslivinski – Comments Off

Most all Illinois employers will have a tougher time conducting credit checks on applicants and employees and using the information for employment purposes beginning January 1, 2011.   The state’s new Employee Privacy Act (House Bill 4658), signed by Governor Quinn on August 10, 2010, prohibits all but a handful of employers from:
  1. inquiring into an applicant’s or an employee’s credit history;
  2. ordering a credit report on an applicant or employee from a consumer reporting agency; or
  3. taking any adverse employment action (such as refusing to hire) because of the individual’s credit history or credit report.
Employers in the following industries are specifically exempted from the Act’s coverage:
  • banks and other financial institutions;
  • businesses engaged in insurance;
  • state law enforcement agencies;
  • state and local government agencies that require credit reports; and
  • qualified debt collection agencies

HIRE Act

Posted in Legislative Updates on September 2nd, 2010 by Richard Lehr – Comments Off

Legislation was just introduced in both chambers of Congress to extend the HIRE Act by six months.  As it currently stands, this Act provides tax incentives for businesses hiring unemployed workers; including a 6.2% payroll tax incentive for employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after 2/3/10 and before 1/1/2011) and a $1,000 general business tax credit for each worker retained by the employer for at least one year.

Under the “HIRE Now Tax Cut Extension Act of 2010″ employers hiring qualified employees from 7/22/10 through 6/30/11 would be entitled to take advantage of the HIRE Act’s benefits for an additional six months.  Please refer to the archived April 19, 2010 “Special Edition” of the RGL Pipeline available on our website:  www.rglconsultants.com  for more details regarding the HIRE Act and definition of qualified employees.

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