Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act enacted

Employers in Illinois soon will be prohibited from requiring employees to attend or participate in meetings intended to communicate an employer’s opinions on unions, under the newly passed Worker Freedom of Speech Act.

“Captive audience” meetings — meetings employees are required to attend in which the employer states its position about why employees should vote “no” on unionization — are a key tool employers use to counter a union organizing effort. Such meetings are permitted under the National Labor Relations Act.

The Illinois law, effective January 1, 2025, prohibits employers from discharging, disciplining or otherwise penalizing or taking an adverse employment action an employee — or threatening to do so — for declining to attend or participate in a meeting or listen to communication from the employer conveying its opinion on political matters. Political matters include matters related to the decision to join or support a labor organization. The law mandates that any employee attendance be strictly voluntary.

Illinois is the latest in the trend of states passing laws prohibiting captive audience meetings. In the past 12 months, similar laws have been enacted by Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont and Washington. The legislation has followed calls by National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo to ban the practice as a violation of employees’ free speech rights.