A new change to an Illinois law provides significant protections for employees who use work-issued electronic devices to document instances of violence.
The amendment to the Victims Economic Security and Safety Act, or VESSA, allows employees in Illinois to use their work-issued cellphones or tablets if needed to document domestic violence, sexual or gender violence, or other violent crimes, said Lydia Colunga-Merchant, Leave Rights Division manager with the Illinois Department of Labor.
"It also allows employees to have access to that data," said Colunga-Merchant, "that is recorded on those work-issued devices."
The change took effect on January 1. Colunga-Merchant encouraged employers to regularly review and update their workplace policies to maintain compliance with current law.
Colunga-Merchant said the amendment stems from an incident in New York, in which an employee experiencing domestic violence was disciplined by her employer for documenting instances on a work-related device. She said the woman was ultimately killed by her spouse.
"It's trying to prevent some of that access that maybe that employee could have had to that work-related device," said Colunga-Merchant, "if she needed that evidence to get potentially an order of protection or a restraining order, or any other type of protection or documentation that could have helped."
She adds that employees can contact the Illinois Department of Labor to file a complaint if they believe employers are violating VESSA provisions.
Illinois News Connection originally published this story.
