SimplyHR | Employment & Labor Blog 

Last week, 60 business groups and four states joined the fight against the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule by filing amicus briefs in the Fifth Circuit asking the court to uphold the district court’s injunction blocking the rule from taking effect.

The Missouri and Illinois legislatures were quite active in 2016 in creating laws affecting employers, and they have been just as busy in the first few weeks of 2017. Below is a summary of employment law developments that may affect your business in those states in the coming year. 

2016 was a busy year for employment law developments on a national level, and 2017 promises to follow suit. To help employers navigate the changes, here is a summary of major developments that may affect your business this year.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 17 ended a yearlong legal challenge to the enforceability of a forum selection clause in an ERISA-governed benefit plan, when the court denied the plaintiff’s petition for writ of certiorari. The case is Clause v. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 719 (Jan. 17, 2017).

Employers should be on notice that the Department of Homeland Security has published a new edition of the Form I-9 for use beginning no later than Jan. 22, 2017.

The new Form I-9 should be used to verify identity and employment authorization for all new hires and re-verifications of expired documents.