Illinois Employer Policy is Illegal: Work Related Injured Employee Seeking Medical Care Cannot be Required to give Advance Notice to Employer Prior to Treatment

December 2014

By: Anthony J. Caruso, Jr., Esq.

A recent federal court decision prohibits Illinois employers from requiring work related injured employees to give advance notice of medical treatment.

The U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, in Stevenson v FedEx, Ground Package Systems, Inc., (decided on September 24, 2014) found the employer unlawfully terminated an employee in retaliation for asserting his rights under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act.

Under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, an employee with a work related injury can choose his/her own medical provider. Here in this case, FedEx had a company policy that had an advance notification requirement on employees who seek medical treatment following a workplace injury. This employee was terminated by FedEx for failing to give advance notice to FedEx.

The Court concluded that the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act does NOT allow employers to impose such a requirement.

Note that Illinois employers can continue to require employees to report work-related injuries.

If you have questions or concerns about employment policies or any other questions related to workers’ compensation or employment law, please call attorney Anthony J. Caruso, Jr. of Wessels Sherman’s St. Charles, Illinois office at 630-377-1554 or e-mail ancaruso@wesselssherman.com

Decertification and RM Petitions (Follow-up)

By Richard H. Wessels, Esq.

December 2014

  

After I wrote an article in the November Illinois Client Update about decertification and RM petitions, I received quite a few follow-ups asking about how to get this started. As I explained last month, the whole process needs to get started with some kind of an indication that the union has lost majority support. Usually, this takes the form of a piece of paper signed by employees – at least 30% for a decertification petition and 50% for an RM petition. There are a few fundamentals that you should keep in mind.

1. A company cannot instigate this. If there is evidence of significant company involvement, which the NLRB refers to as “instigation”, you will be vulnerable to an Unfair Labor Practice charge. A ULP could have the effect of bringing about dismissal of the RM or decertification petition.
2. The best scenario is where an employee asks the “golden question”. Management-side labor lawyers love the “golden question”. Essentially this is along the lines of “how can we get rid of this union?” Once you have an opening, the law is clear that you can explain the process.
3. The wording on the paper that the employees sign is important. The pro-union NLRB can be expected to nitpick the language. So it is important that there be a clear statement that the employees do not wish to be represented by the union. Sloppy language like “we don’t want to be members of the union any longer” or “we want an election” can cause problems. Below is an example of the simple language that is needed.
4. As I mentioned last month, a useful strategy is to direct an employee who is interested in ousting a union to the website of the National Right to Work Committee. There are clear instructions there. That website is: http://nrtwc.org/.
5. Another solid approach is to suggest that the employee call the information officer at the area NLRB office. Our experience is that the information office will give straight information. The phone number can easily be obtained from the NLRB website. That website is: http://www.nlrb.gov/. 

Sample petition employees can sign indicating they no longer wish to be represented by union:
 

We work for American Growth Company. We no longer want to be represented by the Anti-Flexibility, Rigid Seniority, Bankrupt Pension Plan Local Union No. 1, AFL-CIO Name                                                    Date ______________________                ______________ ______________________                ______________ ______________________                ______________ ______________________                ______________ ______________________                ______________

As we mentioned last month, we are seeing more RM petitions these days. If you want to talk about strategy, give me a call here at our St. Charles office at 630-377-1554 or you can email me at riwessels@wesselssherman.com.

Dick Wessels is Founder and Senior Shareholder of Wessels Sherman Joerg Liszka Laverty Seneczko P.C. He is a nationally recognized labor attorney and has been honored as an Illinois Super Lawyer. Dick handles a wide variety of labor and employment law cases. His primary focus is dealing with labor unions, either on behalf of union-free companies or where unions already have representation rights. Dick has handled cases involving nearly all international unions for companies throughout the United States.