David B. Ritter is a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg LLP. He is a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Law Department and co-chairs the Logistics and Transportation Practice Group.
Q. We recently hired someone we didn’t know has a severe allergy to peanuts. If she even smells peanut butter, she has a severe allergic reaction, requiring her to...
Q. One of our employees was on military leave for six months. He will be reinstated at the same pay and position. While he was gone, all employees in his department...
Q. On three occasions, an employee threatened colleagues with physical violence. After the last incident, she explained to her manager that she is bipolar and going...
Q. We have surveillance cameras in several locations in our workplace that record activity, but no sound. The images can be viewed over the Internet by supervisors and...
Some employers have recently begun to require employees and applicants to provide their passwords or otherwise allow access to their social media accounts. The...
The 7th Circuit has held that employees who participate in employer internal investigations before administrative charges or lawsuits have been filed are not protected...
The 7th Circuit recently considered for the first time whether an employee can be individually liable under a “cat’s paw” theory of retaliation under...
Q. We have an employee who claims to belong to a religious sect I have never heard of. Their alleged holidays always occur on Mondays. Do I have to give her these...
Mass layoffs trigger employer obligations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires some employers to provide advance written notice...
Employers are sometimes tempted to monitor and record employees’ communications and activities. That can backfire. Fact is, there are limits on how employers can...
Q. Our time-clock software allows for a five-minute grace period at the start and end of each shift. For example, if the employee’s designated start time is...
In the wake of a recent Illinois court decision in Citadel Investment Group, LLC v. Teza Technologies LLC, employers should rethink their noncompete agreements. Without...
