The Workplace Report with Ancel Glink

On June 18, 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the City of Chicago did not have to comply with an arbitrator’s award that required it to destroy police misconduct records as stipulated in the governing collective bargaining agreement (CBA). In City of Chicago v. Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge No. 7 , the Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge No. 7 (FOP) arbitrated Section 8.4 of its 2007-12 CBA with the City of Chicago, which required the City to destroy of police misconduct records after five (5) years. The arbitrator issued an award requiring both parties to agree on a solution for document destruction. The City then sought to overturn the award on public policy grounds citing the Illinois Local Records Act (50 ILCS 205/1, et seq.). The City filed suit in state court, which overturned the arbitrator’s award at the circuit and appellate courts with the Illinois Supreme Court in agreement. The Illinois Local Records Act prevents t...

Back in October of 2019, we wrote about the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), hearing a trio of cases involving gay and transgender employees being terminated from positions of employment. Yesterday, SCOTUS decided those cases. In the landmark ruling Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia , the Court held in a 6-3 opinion that “[a]n employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII.” Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal law that renders unlawful “an employer[’s] [decision] to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual...because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Historically, Title VII’s definition of “sex” only referred to biological distinctions between men and women. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, succinctly summarizes the essence of all three cases: “[a]n employer fired a long-time emp...