ELC SPONSORSHIP AVAILABLE FOR CHAMBER'S ANNUAL MEETING
As part of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce's September 20
th, A
nnual Meeting activities, an Employment Law Council member will have the exclusive opportunity to present its services/products to nearly 500 attendees during the "All Council Mix and Mingle Reception" (10:-11:30 am) . The sponsorship fee is $2,500 and in return the sponsor receives:
- an exhibitor table during the reception
- 2 seats at the luncheon
- their logo and recognition as sponsor on all written materials, signage, and web and social media information about the event
The Luncheon is being held at the Chicago Hilton from 11:30 am-2:00 pm. To get the full marketing benefit, please contact Jay Shattuck by July 23
rd.
ELC ISSUES SENT TO THE GOVERNOR
With the exception of HB 4163, all legislation approved by the General Assembly has been certified by the Senate President and Speaker of the House to the Governor. With certification, the Governor has 60 days to act on the bill. If the Governor takes no action (rarely occurs), the bill automatically becomes law after the 60-day period.
HB 1595 (Stuart/Haine) amends the
Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act provides for reasonable break time (instead of "unpaid break time each day") during the first year after the child's birth each time the employee needs to express milk. The break time may run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee and an employer may not reduce an employee's compensation for time used for the purpose of expressing milk or nursing a baby. An employer shall provide reasonable break time as needed by the employee unless to do so would create an undue hardship as defined by the Illinois Human Rights Act.
ELC NEUTRAL- sent to the Governor on June 29th.
HB 3792 (Lilly/Harmon) Amends
the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act in provisions concerning postsecondary and career expectations, beginning in grade 6,
students should be introduced to the importance of developing and applying a work ethic in a variety of contexts.
Sent to the Governor on June 21st.
HB 4163 (Moeller/Castro)
amends the Equal Pay Act of 2003 prohibiting an employer from inquiring about salary and wage history by adding new standards that limit employer defenses and adding new compensatory and punitive damage penalties on businesses who are not compliant. The Chamber opposed this bill and prefers the alternative method outlined in
SB 3100
, sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Plainfield). SB 3100 only prohibits the inquiry about or using of a job applicant's wage, salary, and benefits history. It does not diminish employer defenses or enhance and expand legal remedies and fines as HB 4163 does. ELC OPPOSED-the Motion to Reconsider Vote was withdrawn on July 9th and the legislation must be sent to the Governor by August 8th.
HB 4572 (Guzzardi/Castro)
amends the Illinois Human Rights Act to redefine "employer" to include any person employing one (currently 15) or more employees within Illinois during 20 or more calendar weeks within the calendar year of or preceding the alleged violation.
ELC OPPOSES and is seeking a veto from Gov. Rauner. Sent to the Governor on June 14th.
HB 4743 (Ford/Lightford)
amends the Equal Pay Act providing that no employer may discriminate between employees by paying wages to an African-American employee at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to another employee who is not African-American for the same or substantially similar work on a job that requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility and is performed under similar working conditions. We have recommended that "race" would be more appropriate than singling out African Americans or any other race. We also point out that the protection being sought is already prohibited under state and federal law.
Sent to the Governor on June 21st.
HB 4795 (Demmer/Syverson) changes the Alcoholism and Other Drug Abuse and Dependency Act to the Substance Use Disorder Act, defines "substance use disorder", and removes certain terms and their definitions.
Requires Illinois DHS to encourage all health and disability insurance programs to include substance use disorder treatment as a covered service and to use evidence-based best practice criteria as maintained in administrative rule and required in P.A. 99-0480 in determining the necessity for such services and continued stay.
Sent to the Governor on June 15th.
SB 20 (Steans/Currie) contains e
xtensive procedural changes to the Illinois Humans Rights Act and significant structural changes to the Illinois Human Rights Commission to provide for full-time, professional commissioners. A temporary panel of commissioners also will be responsible for eliminating the backlog of requests for review at the Commission. The Chamber heavily pushed these reforms, especially addressing the backlog at the Human Rights Commission.
ELC SUPPORT-sent to the Governor on June 28th.
SB 336 (Harmon/Cassidy
) expands medical cannabis as a pilot program for patients who have received a physician certification for a medical condition that an
opioid has been or could be prescribed for by a physician.
Sent to the Governor on June 29th.
SB 904 (Hastings/Hoffman)
will allow medical providers to pursue the 1% per month interest penalty on unpaid workers' compensation medical bills in circuit court. These changes will increase litigation for employers and ELC will be seeking a veto by Gov. Rauner.
ELC OPPOSES- sent to the Governor on June 29th.
SB 1737 (Muñoz/Hoffman)
makes changes to the workers' compensation insurance rates overseen by the Illinois Department of Insurance (DOI). Those changes will take Illinois from its current competitive marketplace approach to requiring an insurer/rating organization to file its rates, manuals, rules, etc. with DOI 30 days before their use. DOI would have 30 days from the filing to approve or disapprove the rates. It also, requires a company that intends to deviate from the filing of a licensed rating organization of which it is a member, the company shall provide the Director with supporting information that specifies the basis for the
requested deviation and provides justification for the deviation. At renewal, if a rate is greater than 5% more than the rate filed with DOI, a notice of the increase must be provided to the policyholder 30 days prior to renewal. In addition, there are several additional changes to various insurance-related statutes that are supported by various insurers and self-insured employers.
Sent to the Governor on June 29th.
SB 2471 (Holmes/Cavaletto) Amends the Volunteer Emergency Job Protection Act
to define "volunteer emergency worker" means a person who serves as a member of a fire department of a fire protection district, municipality, or other unit of government on other than a full-time career basis and who meets the requirements for volunteer status under the Code of Federal Regulations and Opinion Letters from the USDOL. The definition includes a person licensed under the EMS Systems Act and serves on a volunteer basis as an EMR, EMT, EMT-I, A-EMT, or EMT-P.
Sent to the Governor on June 22nd.
SB 2826 (Morrison/Olsen) Amends the
Illinois Human Rights Act adds to the definition "order of protection status" as a person protected under the Protective Orders Article of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963, the Stalking No Contact Order Act, and the Civil No Contact Order Act.
Sent to the Governor on June 19th
SB 2999 (Van Pelt/Conyears-Ervin)
requires an employer to reimburse an employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee directly related to services performed for the employer within 30 days of submission. It requires that the expenditure must be within the scope of employment, authorized or required and appropriate documentation is provided.
ELC NEUTRAL- sent to the Governor on June 29th.
SB 3547 (T. Cullerton/Chapa LaVia) Creates the
Service-Member Employment and Reemployment Rights Act concerning matters relevant to the employment rights of service-members, including employment protections, additional benefits for public employee members of a reserve component, prohibitions on discrimination, a notice of rights and duties, violations, enforcement, remedies, and rulemaking.
Sent to the Governor on June 29th
