Amazon Covid Screening Wage Question Reaches Illinois Justices

Amazon on Tuesday urged the Illinois Supreme Court to find that state law doesn’t entitle warehouse workers to payment for time spent undergoing mandatory COVID-19 screenings, in arguments sparked by a certified question from the Seventh Circuit.

At issue is whether the Illinois Minimum Wage Law incorporates the federal Portal-to-Portal Act, which excludes certain preliminary activities from paid time.

The state law is silent on the Portal-to-Portal Act, attorney John Frawley argued on behalf of the ex-warehouse worker plaintiffs, and so reading federal standards into the state law would “really be a legislative act.”

“It would be adding text, adding ...