Amazon’s Reading of Illinois Law Rejected By State High Court

The Illinois Supreme Court roundly rejected Amazon‘s arguments about state wage-and-hour law on Thursday, finding an Illinois statute protects workers’ right to be paid for certain pre-shift activities.

In a brief opinion, Justice David Overstreet wrote that a “plain reading” of state law shows legislators didn’t intend to incorporate federal law’s exclusion of preliminary and “postliminary” activities.

Rather, he said, lawmakers delegated the power to define “hours worked” to the Illinois Department of Labor.

“In turn IDOL adopted a definition of ‘hours worked’ that necessarily includes preliminary and postliminary activities, explicitly encompassing all time that an employee is ...