Legal updates

January 17, 2017 

On January 13, 2017, Governor Rauner signed into law several amendments to the Illinois Employee Sick Leave Act. See Public Act 99-0921 (Senate Bill 2799). As originally enacted, the Act requires “employers” to permit employees to use personal sick leave benefits for absences due to an illness, injury, or medical appointment associated with several different members of an employee’s family. Such benefits can now be used on the same basis as they are permitted for the employee’s own personal illness or injury. The original Act limits the use of such sick leave benefits to a maximum of what an employee otherwise could accrue during 6 months at the employee’s then current rate of entitlement. 

The recent amendments clarify several aspects of the original Act, including an employer’s ability to seek written verification from a health care professional about the need for an employee’s time off request. The amendments also add “stepchildren” and “domestic partners” to the list of family members for which sick leave benefits can be used. The amendments also provide that certain employers and employees covered by the Railway Labor Act are exempt, and authorize the Illinois Department of Labor to adopt rules exempting other employment.



More importantly, however, is a provision that states that nothing in the Act “shall be construed to invalidate, diminish, or otherwise interfere with any collective bargaining agreement nor shall it be construed to invalidate, diminish, or otherwise interfere with any party’s power to collectively bargain such an agreement.” This provision may have been intended to preserve collectively bargained sick leave provisions, even if they do not fully comply with the Act’s provisions. This newly added provision is important to consider when formulating a response to a union’s mid-term bargaining demand over supposed “conflicts” between the Act’s provisions and existing labor agreements.

CBS attorneys have opined that the failure of the Act, both as originally enacted and as amended, to include a specific exemption from the applicability of the “State Mandates Act” means that units of local government may not legally be obligated to comply with the Act in absence of an appropriation to cover the additional cost of complying with the Sick Leave Act’s mandate to provide paid sick leave in situations where it is not already provided. In addition, the plain language of the Act does not clarify whether it applies to Illinois public employers, nor does it appear to limit a jurisdiction’s home rule authority (assuming it does apply to public employers). Those public employers who are interested in avoiding the time and expense of bargaining over this topic should consult labor counsel to develop a strategy for responding to union bargaining demands in ways that are uniquely tailored to the communities’ specific needs and circumstances.

Feel free to contact a Clark Baird Smith LLP attorney for additional information about the recent Illinois Employee Sick Leave Act amendments.