Under are questions and solutions addressing vital provisions below the PLFAW Act.
Q: Which Illinois “employers” can be coated below and topic to the PLFAW Act?
A: The PLFAW Act adopts an expansive definition of employer, which incorporates non-public sector employers no matter dimension (e.g., a number of workers) and the state and items of native governments, or any state or native governmental company. Nevertheless, Illinois faculty districts organized below the Illinois College Code and Illinois park districts organized below the Illinois Park District Code are usually not included within the definition of “employer” below the PLFAW Act.
Importantly, the PLFAW Act doesn’t apply to employers who at the moment are coated by a municipal or county ordinance that’s in impact as of January 1, 2024, and which requires the employer to supply any type of paid depart to their workers, together with paid sick depart or different paid depart. Thus, for instance, employers situated in Chicago who’re topic to the Chicago Paid Sick Go away Ordinance can be exempt from complying with the PLFAW Act. Equally, employers situated in suburban Prepare dinner County municipalities that did not decide out of the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Go away Ordinance and are offering paid sick depart in compliance with that ordinance can be exempt from complying with the PLFAW Act. Notably, nevertheless, it seems that these employers situated in a suburban Prepare dinner County municipality that lawfully preempted the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Go away Ordinance and did decide out seemingly can be topic to the PLFAW Act.
Q: Who’s a coated worker below the PLFAW Act?
A: All workers (i.e., full time, half time, non permanent, brief time period, exempt, non-exempt) working in Illinois, besides:
- workers as outlined within the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance coverage Act (45 U.S.C. 351 et seq.) or the Railway Labor Act;
- a scholar enrolled in and commonly attending courses in a school or college that can be the coed’s employer, and who’s employed on a brief foundation at lower than full time on the faculty or college (this exclusion applies solely to work carried out for that faculty or college);
- a short-term worker who’s employed by an establishment of upper training for lower than two consecutive calendar quarters throughout a calendar yr and who doesn’t have an affordable expectation that they are going to be rehired by the identical employer of the identical service in a subsequent calendar yr;
- workers working within the development trade coated by a bona fide collective bargaining settlement; and
- workers coated by a bona fide collective bargaining settlement with an employer that gives nationwide or worldwide companies of supply, pickup, and transportation of parcels, paperwork, and freight.
Q: How a lot paid depart is roofed employers required to supply coated workers below the PLFAW Act?
A: Staff are entitled to earn and use as much as a minimal of 40 hours of paid depart, or a professional rata variety of hours of paid depart, throughout a 12-month interval the employer designates in writing (e.g., worker handbook).
Employers have the choice to frontload by offering the whole 40 hours in a lump sum on the primary day of employment or the primary day of a chosen 12-month interval. Or, employers can have workers accrue paid depart on the charge of 1 hour of paid depart for each 40 hours labored, as much as a minimal of 40 hours of paid depart, or such larger quantity if the employer chooses to supply greater than 40 hours of paid depart below the PLFAW Act. Staff correctly categorised as exempt from the additional time necessities of the Honest Labor Requirements Act are thought-about to work 40 hours in every workweek for functions of paid depart accrual, until their common workweek is lower than 40 hours. Paid depart begins to accrue on the worker’s first day of employment, or on January 1, 2024, whichever date is later. Nevertheless, employers can require that workers wait the later of 90 days from their begin date, or 90 days from January 1, 2024, to start utilizing earned paid depart supplied below the PLFAW Act.
Whereas workers can decide how a lot paid depart they should use, employers might set an affordable minimal increment for the usage of paid depart to not exceed two hours per day.
However for workers topic to a collective bargaining settlement (see beneath), an employer can not enter into an settlement with an worker to waive the worker’s rights below the PLFAW Act, and any such waiver is void.
Q: What charge of pay will the PLFAW require employers to make use of to calculate paid depart?
A: Employers can be required to pay workers their commonplace hourly charge of pay for paid depart supplied below the PLFAW Act. Staff who’re paid gratuities or commissions as a part of their wages should be paid no less than the relevant full minimal wage within the jurisdiction during which they’re employed when paid depart is taken. That relevant full minimal wage can be handled as the worker’s common charge of pay for functions of the PLFAW Act.
Q: Are there particular causes that workers can be in a position use paid depart below the PLFAW Act?
A: No, workers can be in a position use earned paid depart for any purpose. Certainly, not like the Chicago Paid Sick Go away Ordinance and the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Go away Ordinance, which each delineate the precise causes on which workers can take paid sick depart, the PLFAW Act has no such limitations. Staff can be in a position use paid depart supplied below the PLFAW Act for “any purpose of the worker’s selecting.” In reality, below the PLFAW Act, workers won’t be required to supply their employers with any purpose for the necessity to use paid depart, and employers can not require that workers present documentation or certification as proof or in assist of the necessity for the paid depart.
Q: Will workers be required to supply their workers with superior discover of the necessity to use paid depart, and in what method will they be required to request depart?
A: If the necessity for depart is foreseeable, employers might require that workers present as much as seven calendar days’ discover earlier than the date the depart is scheduled to start. If the necessity for depart is not foreseeable, workers can be required to supply discover as quickly as is practicable after the worker turns into conscious of the need for the depart. The employers’ discover necessities, in addition to whether or not the employer will allow workers to supply discover orally and/or in writing, should be memorialized in a written coverage (e.g. stand-alone coverage or in an worker handbook or coverage handbook. That coverage should be supplied to the worker on the worker’s first day of employment, or on January 1, 2024, whichever is later.
Importantly, as a situation of granting an worker’s request to make use of paid depart below the PLFAW Act, employers can not require that the worker seek for or discover a alternative to cowl the hours throughout which the worker can be utilizing paid depart. Employers additionally can be prohibited from interfering with, denying or altering an worker’s work days or hours to keep away from offering paid depart below the PLFAW Act.
Q: Underneath the PLFAW Act, on the finish of designated 12-month interval, will an worker be permitted to hold over any unused however accrued paid depart into the following 12-month interval?
A: These employers that select to frontload and supply workers no less than 40 hours of paid depart below the PLFAW Act on their first day of employment, or the primary day of the designated 12-month interval, will not be required to hold over an worker’s unused paid depart into the following 12-month interval. Employers might require workers to make use of all paid depart previous to the tip of the 12-month interval or forfeit the unused paid depart (i.e. “use it or lose it”). Conversely, if an employer chooses to make use of the accrual methodology to adjust to the PLFAW Act, then that employer can be permitted to hold over into the following 12-month interval accrued however unused earned paid depart below the PLFAW Act. Nevertheless, below the PLFAW Act, employers won’t be required to supply an worker greater than 40 hours of paid depart to be used within the designated 12-month interval.
Q: Underneath the PLFAW Act, upon separation of employment, will employers be required to pay workers for unused paid depart?
A: Employers are usually not required to pay workers accrued however unused paid depart supplied below the PLFAW Act upon the worker’s termination, resignation, retirement, or different separation from employment (or on the finish of the designated 12-month interval), supplied that the employer has not credited PLFAW Act depart to an worker’s paid day without work financial institution or worker trip account. If an worker is rehired inside 12 months of the separation by the identical employer, the worker’s earned paid depart below the PLFAW should be restored.
Q: When it goes into impact, will the PLFAW Act supersede collective bargaining agreements already in place that govern paid depart?
A: The PLFAW Act doesn’t have an effect on the validity or change the phrases of any bona fide collective bargaining agreements (CBA) already in impact on January 1, 2024, addressing paid depart. For CBAs entered into after January 1, 2024, the events might comply with waive the necessities below the PLFAW Act, however provided that the waiver is ready forth in clear and unambiguous phrases.
Q: On or earlier than January 1, 2024, will employers have to revise their present paid depart insurance policies in the event that they already present, no less than, or greater than, 40 hours of paid depart?
A: If an employer already has in place any kind of paid depart coverage that gives no less than 40 hours of paid depart, the PLFAW Act states that an employer shouldn’t be required to switch the coverage, supplied that the coverage provides an worker the choice, on the worker’s discretion, to take paid depart for any purpose.
For instance, if an employer provides paid depart solely as a part of its trip coverage and gives no less than 40 hours of trip time, however the coverage solely permits the worker to make use of the hours for trip, on or earlier than January 1, 2024, the coverage will must be revised to allow workers to make use of all or any of these 40 hours for “any purpose of the worker’s selecting.”
Q: What, if any information, will the PLFAW Act require employers to keep up and for a way lengthy?
A: The PLFAW Act would require employers to create information documenting hours labored, paid depart accrued and brought, and remaining paid depart balances for every worker, keep such information for no less than three years, and permit the Illinois Division of Labor (IDOL) entry to the information “at affordable occasions throughout enterprise hours to observe compliance with the PLFAW Act.” Upon an worker’s request, employers that present paid depart below the PLFAW Act on an accrual foundation should present discover of the quantity of depart accrued or used. Failure to adjust to the recordkeeping necessities will topic employers to a penalty of $2,500 per offense.
Q: What, if any, posting necessities will the PLFAW Act require of employers?
A: Employers can be required to submit in a conspicuous place the place different notices are usually posted a discover that the IDOL will put together, summarizing the necessities of the PLFAW Act, which additionally gives info on submitting a cost. Individually, that info additionally should be supplied to workers in a written doc, written worker handbook or coverage handbook. This should happen on the worker’s begin date, or 90 days after January 1, 2024, whichever is later. Employers which have workforces comprising a good portion of staff who don’t learn or perceive English can be required to request a discover within the acceptable language from the IDOL. Employers can be topic to a penalty of $500 for the primary violation and $1,000 for every subsequent violation of this posting requirement.
Q: What, if any, cures can be obtainable to workers who consider their employer has violated their rights below the PLFAW Act?
A: The PLFAW Act will prohibit employers from taking antagonistic motion in opposition to workers for (a): exercising or trying to train their rights below the PLFAW Act; (b) opposing practices the worker believes to be in violation of the PLFAW Act; or (c) supporting others’ train of their rights below the PLFAW Act.
As well as, the PLFAW Act will prohibit employers from contemplating the usage of paid depart below the PLFAW Act as a unfavorable think about any employment motion that entails evaluating, selling, disciplining or counting paid depart below a no-fault attendance coverage.
The IDOL is answerable for administering and imposing the PLFAW Act. Staff might file complaints with the IDOL inside three years of the alleged violation. Employers discovered to violate the PLFAW Act are liable to affected workers for precise damages (i.e. the quantity of the underpayment), compensatory damages, attorneys’ charges/prices, knowledgeable witness charges and civil penalties of not lower than $500 and less than $1,000.
We’ll proceed to observe and report on developments with to the PLFAW Act and supply any updates as they turn out to be obtainable. Employers with questions on how this impacts them might contact a member of Greensfelder’s Employment & Labor observe group to debate.
