Articles About Iowa Labor And Employment Law.

On March 28, 2023, Iowa’s Governor signed Iowa’s new statute relating to consumer data protection. Iowa joins California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia in the ever-growing patchwork of consumer privacy laws across the country.

The new law takes effect on January 1, 2025.

Iowa’s consumer privacy law covers businesses that control or process personal data

On March 15, 2023, the Iowa legislature unanimously passed Senate File 262, the Consumer Privacy Act, which relates to consumer data and privacy protection. Once signed by Iowa’s governor, the statute will become operative on January 1, 2025, and  Iowa will join California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia in passing

On November 15, 2021, the city of Des Moines, Iowa, passed a “ban-the-box” law that will limit employer inquiries and background checks into an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional offer of employment. Though the law was passed and has already taken effect, it has received little fanfare and

Iowa lawmakers have expanded on federal efforts to make student-athletes employees. They have introduced legislation (H.F. 2055) to classify intercollegiate athletes at Iowa’s state universities as state employees. This follows a year in which numerous state legislative efforts established name, image, and likeness rights for student-athletes and federal court decisions

Physicians often have a legal obligation to report conduct which they believe may constitute negligence, or demonstrate an individual’s inability to practice medicine competently, safely, or within the bounds of the relevant code of medical ethics. Because of the nature of the information required to be reported, it is not

On October 29, 2021, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed House File 902 into law, a measure that requires Iowa employers with mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policies to waive their requirements for employees who seek vaccination exemptions for medical or religious reasons. The law also permits individuals to qualify for unemployment insurance

Since it was passed in 1998, Iowa’s Drug-Free Workplaces Act has been one of the most comprehensive and complex drug-testing statutes in the United States. On June 25, 2021, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions—Dix v. Casey’s General Stores, Inc. and Woods v. Charles Gabus Ford, Inc.—that

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that Iowa state law preempts the City of Waterloo’s restriction on employers’ use of applicants’ criminal record history when making hiring decisions.  Other aspects of the ordinance, however, remain legal and enforceable.  The case is Iowa Ass’n of Bus. & Indus. v. City

In two opinions filed on June 25, 2021, the Iowa Supreme Court clarified the state’s complex employee drug-testing requirements. The opinions shed light on key issues, such as safety-sensitive designations, notice requirements, and compliance standards under Iowa Code section 730.5. Employers with Iowa-specific drug-testing policies should take time to

After nearly a decade of litigation, in Godrey v. State of Iowa et al, Case No. 19-1954 (June 30, 2021), the Iowa Supreme Court reversed a jury verdict granting $1.5 million in damages and $3.1 million in attorneys’ fees to the former Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner, based on his

An employer’s failure to notify an employee of the cost of a confirmatory re-test of his original drug test specimen is a violation of the Iowa drug testing law.  Woods v. Charles Gabus Ford, Inc., Case No. 19-0002 (Iowa June 25, 2021).

The Iowa drug testing statute imposes many requirements

Reversing a district court’s grant of summary judgment, the Iowa Court of Appeals held an employee presented sufficient evidence for her disability-based hostile work environment claim to proceed to trial, despite the relatively short period of her employment. Munoz v. Adventure Lands of America, Inc., 2021 BL 37057 (Iowa Ct.

On November 16, 2020, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a public health proclamation imposing public health measures on a variety of employers to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Iowa Department of Public Health also issued a brief summary of the proclamation. The proclamation went into effect on 12:01

Addressing a matter of first impression, the Iowa Supreme Court determined that “when a civil cause of action is provided by the legislature in the same statute that creates the public policy to be enforced, the civil cause of action is the exclusive remedy for violation of that statute.” Ferguson v. Exide Technologies, Inc., et al, Case No. 18-1600 (Iowa Dec. 13, 2019). Therefore, a plaintiff who brings a claim for a violation of the Iowa drug testing statute cannot also bring a wrongful discharge claim based on the same conduct.

Beginning July 1, 2018, private employers in Iowa may take action based on an employee’s alcohol test result of .02 grams of alcohol per two hundred ten liters of breath. The lower standard was enacted under a 2018 amendment to the Iowa drug testing law (Iowa Code Section 730.5). Prior to the amendment, employers could not take action for alcohol test results below .04 Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC).