Laborsphere

Artificial Intelligence Briefing: Tracking AI Regulation and Legislation

As more organizations use artificial intelligence and algorithms to drive decision-making processes, policymakers are beginning to address concerns about these tools — including their lack of transparency and potential for generating unintended bias and discrimination. In our inaugural artificial intelligence briefing, we provide a rundown of recent AI regulatory and legislative developments from across the U.S. that should be top of mind for any organization using AI or algorithms.

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March 2022 Kicks Off Equal Pay Registration Certification for Some Illinois Employers

In recent years, Illinois has enacted a complement of laws designed to address historical pay inequities among genders, races and other protected categories. Those laws prohibit employers from requesting or relying on an applicant’s salary history when making hiring decisions and impose a standard for proving equal pay claims less rigorous than the federal standard. Last summer, we reported here of yet another Illinois equal pay development, when Illinois amended the Equal Pay Act of 2003, 820 ILCS 112/1, et seq. to require certain employers to obtain an equal pay registration certificate from the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) between March 24, 2022 and March 23, 2024, and every two years thereafter.

Employers who have more than 100 employees in the state of Illinois and are required to file an EEO-1 report with the EEOC are subject to this certification requirement. The window for obtaining the required certificate opens on March 24, 2022, and IDOL recently announced that it had begun sending notices to employers reminding them to register with IDOL.

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New Executive Order Requires Project Labor Agreements on Large Federal Construction Projects

On Friday, February 4, 2022 President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14063, requiring project labor agreements (PLA) for all federal construction projects costing more than $35 million. PLAs are agreements between contractors and one or more labor organizations that establish the terms and conditions of employment, such as wage rates and benefits, for specific construction projects. Because of their project-based specificity, the terms and conditions of a PLA often (depending upon the PLA’s terms) supersede the provisions of an existing, but more geographically generalized, area collective bargaining agreements (CBA).

The order takes effect immediately and will apply to many of the projects funded by the recent infrastructure bill.

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Illinois Supreme Court: BIPA Claims Not Barred By Workers’ Compensation Act

Companies with Illinois employees have been bombarded with class action lawsuits under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) over the last several years. These lawsuits generally allege that employers have not complied with BIPA’s notice and consent requirements before collecting or disclosing employees’ biometrics. One of the defenses has been that such claims are preempted under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act (IWCA) as workplace injuries, and thus cannot be brought in court. However, on February 3, 2022, in a long-awaited decision, the Illinois Supreme Court held in McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park, LLC, 2022 IL 126511, that preemption does not apply to BIPA claims raised by employees for damages, thereby allowing such claims to proceed in court.

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OFCCP’s New Federal Contractor Compliance Portal Opens for Registration Only

On February 1, 2021, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) opened its new Federal Contractor Portal (Portal) for one-time registration and updated its website landing page with a Federal Contractor User Guide and additional FAQs. As previously reported, the OFCCP has implemented an annual affirmative action plan (AAP) certification process, which requires covered federal contractors and subcontractors (contractors) to register for the Portal and then annually certify they are meeting their existing requirement to develop and maintain annual AAPs. At this time, the Portal is open only for registration — it will not open for certification until March 31, 2022. The OFCCP encourages contractors to complete registration by March 30, 2022 to avoid any delays in the certification process.

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U.K. Employment Tribunal Decisions: When Employees Refuse to Attend the Workplace for Fear of COVID-19

Recent Employment Tribunal (ET) decisions have shed light on the risks that can arise for employers where employees refuse to attend the workplace because of COVID-19 concerns. We consider below how ETs have dealt with claims of discrimination and automatic unfair dismissal related to COVID-19.

Discrimination

In X v. Y (ET 241947/2020), an employer withheld an employee’s wages after she refused to attend the workplace due to her fear that she would contract COVID-19 and pass it on to her vulnerable husband. The employee brought a claim for unlawful discrimination arguing that her opinion regarding the risk of COVID-19 and the need to protect herself amounted to a philosophical belief that was capable of constituting a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. The ET disagreed. It found that the employee’s view was not a philosophical belief protected under the Equality Act 2010 but “a widely held opinion based on the present state of information” and a “reaction to a threat of physical harm”. Her claim therefore failed.

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