For Individuals and Employees
Discrimination and Hostile Work Environment
Discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, pregnancy, religion, disability or age (among other protected classes) occurs when an individual is treated less favorably than others. A hostile work environment occurs when the offensive conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.
Sexual Harassment
Your employer has a duty to provide a safe work environment. Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. Harassment does not have to be of a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person's sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general.
Pregnancy and Disability Rights
If you are pregnant, nursing, or an individual with a disability you have certain workplace protections. At your request, your employer must engage in an interactive process with you to determine if a reasonable accommodation exists to help you perform your essential job functions.
Nursing Mothers
Your employer must designate a proper space where you can privately express milk.
Retaliation, Whistleblower, and Wrongful Termination,
It is unlawful to terminate your employment or take other actions against you in response to your good-faith complaint of wrongdoing. An employer may not take action against a whistleblower who reports unlawful activity to the police or a governmental agency.
Absence From Work
Local, state and federal laws provide for job-protected leave in many circumstances. Some common situations that require job-protected leave include caring for your own serious health condition or that of your family member, jury duty, or military duty. Paid time off is also available under Illinois law.
Compensation, Wages, and Overtime
You work hard and are entitled to be paid properly for your time. An employer may fail to meet its obligations to pay you by miscalculating your rate of pay, failing to pay commissions and/or miscalculating them, keeping your tips, requiring off-the-clock work, or taking unlawful deductions from your pay. Illinois law mandates that only certain deductions can be made and requires that employers pay full final compensation, which includes accrued vacation pay.
Equal Pay
It is unlawful to pay a person who performs the same or substantially similar work on the basis of gender. Illinois law also prohibits employers from paying African-American employees less than non-African-American employees who perform the same or substantially similar work.
Executive Contracts and Compensation
When you enter into a written employment or severance agreement it is critical to understand your obligations. If you already entered into an agreement, you may have questions about the terms or if ready to move to the next opportunity you want to ensure doing so does not violate any provisions of the agreement(s).
Executive Advocacy
You must be your own best advocate when it comes to negotiating a new job, a compensation package, or a promotion. We can help you help yourself by developing negotiation strategies that are authentic to you.
Labor Law
We prosecute and defend unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board and the Illinois Public Labor Relations Board.
Class and Collective Actions
Herschman Levison PLLC has experience prosecuting and defending collective and class action claims in both state and federal courts under the FLSA, Title VII, and the Biometric Information and Privacy Act (“BIPA”).
Corporate Matters
We provide counsel on corporate governance and business formation for our employer and employee clients.
Insurance Coverage
Most of us have insurance policies – but are unaware of how the claims process works and what coverage is available under existing policies. We aggressively advocate your insurance coverage position when disputes arise under comprehensive general liability, directors and officers’ liability, employment practices liability, and professional liability errors and omissions policies.