CBA Record March-April 2026

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

workplace monitoring, nor does it guar antee employees freedom from discipline based on speech or conduct. Instead, IRPWA addresses two principal areas: political activity and access to personal online accounts. Political Activity and Political Beliefs The IRPWA prohibits employers from controlling or directing employees’ politi cal activities. Under the IRPWA, an employer may not require an employee to engage in political activities, including supporting or opposing a political party, candidate, or cause. The law also prohibits retaliation against an employee for refus ing to participate in such political activities or for holding lawful political beliefs. This protection reflects a legislative judgment that political participation and beliefs are personal matters that should remain outside the scope of employer coercion. While employers may express their own political views, they may not condition employment decisions on an employee’s political participation or lack of participation. Importantly, however, IRPWA does not protect political speech that interferes with workplace operations or violates otherwise lawful workplace policies, including those of health and safety. Personal Online Accounts and Social Media Access This portion of the IRPWA has become increasingly significant as workplace disputes migrate to digital platforms. Employees often wrongly assume that any thing they post on social media is private or protected. However, the IRPWA pro tects only against compelled access to pri vate accounts, not against discipline based on public posts or unprotected conduct. The IRPWA also restricts employer access to employees’ personal online accounts. Employers are prohibited from requesting or requiring employees or job applicants to disclose usernames, pass words, or other access credentials for personal social networking accounts. Fur ther, employers may not demand access to private content or retaliate against

E mployee rights in the workplace are often discussed in broad terms, but in prac tice, they are defined by complex interactions of state statutes, federal law, and judicial interpretation. The law establishes boundaries on employer conduct and protects certain employee activities while still preserving significant managerial author ity. Understanding these protections and restrictions is critical for both employees and employers. Employees frequently overestimate the scope of workplace privacy or free speech protections, while employers sometimes underestimate the breadth of legally pro tected activity under federal laws. Employee Rights in Illinois Illinois employees do not enjoy a single, unified “bill of rights” in the workplace. Instead, their protections arise from a patchwork of laws that address specific concerns, such as retaliation, discrimination, privacy, and collective action. Unlike public employees, most Illinois private-sector employees do not have constitutional free speech protections in the workplace. Instead, their rights come from statutes enacted to regulate employer behavior in discrete areas. In Illinois, two legal frameworks play an especially important role in shaping employee rights related to speech, privacy, and workplace expression: the Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act (IRPWA), which addresses political activity and personal online accounts, and Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which protects employees’ rights to engage in concerted activity regarding their wages, hours, and work ing conditions. These laws operate independently but frequently intersect, particularly in disputes involving social media, workplace complaints, or off-duty expression. Illinois Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act The IRPWA, codified at 820 ILCS 55, is often misunderstood as creating a broad right to privacy at work. The statute is targeted and issue specific. It does not prohibit general Employee Rights in the Illinois Workplace: Privacy, Speech, and Concerted Activity By Abhishek Ramaswami

34 March/April 2026