Beneath are questions and solutions addressing vital provisions beneath the PLFAW Act.

Q: Which Illinois “employers” shall be coated beneath and topic to the PLFAW Act?

A: The PLFAW Act adopts an expansive definition of employer, which incorporates personal sector employers no matter dimension (e.g., a number of staff) and the state and items of native governments, or any state or native governmental company. Nonetheless, Illinois college districts organized beneath the Illinois College Code and Illinois park districts organized beneath the Illinois Park District Code are usually not included within the definition of “employer” beneath the PLFAW Act.

Importantly, the PLFAW Act doesn’t apply to employers who at present 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 staff, together with paid sick depart or different paid depart. Thus, for instance, employers situated in Chicago who’re topic to the Chicago Paid Sick Depart Ordinance shall be exempt from complying with the PLFAW Act. Equally, employers situated in suburban Prepare dinner County municipalities that did not choose out of the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Depart Ordinance and are offering paid sick depart in compliance with that ordinance shall be exempt from complying with the PLFAW Act. Notably, nonetheless, it seems that these employers situated in a suburban Prepare dinner County municipality that lawfully preempted the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Depart Ordinance and did choose out seemingly shall be topic to the PLFAW Act.

Q: Who’s a coated worker beneath the PLFAW Act?

A: All staff (i.e., full time, half time, non permanent, quick time period, exempt, non-exempt) working in Illinois, besides:

• staff as outlined within the federal Railroad Unemployment Insurance coverage Act (45 U.S.C. 351 et seq.) or the Railway Labor Act;
• a pupil enrolled in and usually attending courses in a school or college that can also be the scholar’s employer, and who’s employed on a brief foundation at lower than full time on the school or college (this exclusion applies solely to work carried out for that school or college);
• a short-term worker who’s employed by an establishment of upper schooling for lower than two consecutive calendar quarters throughout a calendar 12 months and who doesn’t have an inexpensive expectation that they are going to be rehired by the identical employer of the identical service in a subsequent calendar 12 months;
• staff working within the building business coated by a bona fide collective bargaining settlement; and
• staff coated by a bona fide collective bargaining settlement with an employer that gives nationwide or worldwide providers of supply, pickup, and transportation of parcels, paperwork, and freight.

Q: How a lot paid depart is roofed employers required to supply coated staff beneath the PLFAW Act?

A: Workers 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 all the 40 hours in a lump sum on the primary day of employment or the primary day of a delegated 12-month interval. Or, employers can have staff 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 better quantity if the employer chooses to supply greater than 40 hours of paid depart beneath the PLFAW Act.  Workers correctly categorised as exempt from the additional time necessities of the Truthful Labor Requirements Act are thought of to work 40 hours in every workweek for functions of paid depart accrual, except 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. Nonetheless, employers can require that staff wait the later of 90 days from their begin date, or 90 days from January 1, 2024, to start utilizing earned paid depart supplied beneath the PLFAW Act.

Whereas staff can decide how a lot paid depart they should use, employers might set an inexpensive minimal increment for using paid depart to not exceed two hours per day.

However for workers topic to a collective bargaining settlement (see under), an employer can’t enter into an settlement with an worker to waive the worker’s rights beneath 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 shall be required to pay staff their commonplace hourly charge of pay for paid depart supplied beneath the PLFAW Act. Workers who’re paid gratuities or commissions as a part of their wages should be paid not 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 shall be handled as the worker’s common charge of pay for functions of the PLFAW Act.

Q: Are there particular causes that staff shall be in a position use paid depart beneath the PLFAW Act?

A: No, staff shall be in a position use earned paid depart for any motive. Certainly, in contrast to the Chicago Paid Sick Depart Ordinance and the Prepare dinner County Earned Sick Depart Ordinance, which each delineate the particular causes on which staff can take paid sick depart, the PLFAW Act has no such limitations. Workers shall be in a position use paid depart supplied beneath the PLFAW Act for “any motive of the worker’s selecting.” Actually, beneath the PLFAW Act, staff won’t be required to supply their employers with any motive for the necessity to use paid depart, and employers can’t require that staff present documentation or certification as proof or in assist of the necessity for the paid depart.  

Q: Will staff be required to supply their staff 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 staff 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, staff shall 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 staff 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 guide. 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 beneath the PLFAW Act, employers can’t require that the worker seek for or discover a substitute to cowl the hours throughout which the worker shall be utilizing paid depart. Employers additionally shall be prohibited from interfering with, denying or altering an worker’s work days or hours to keep away from offering paid depart beneath the PLFAW Act.

Q: Beneath 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 subsequent 12-month interval?

A: These employers that select to frontload and supply staff not less than 40 hours of paid depart beneath 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 subsequent 12-month interval. Employers might require staff 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 shall be permitted to hold over into the subsequent 12-month interval accrued however unused earned paid depart beneath the PLFAW Act. Nonetheless, beneath 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: Beneath the PLFAW Act, upon separation of employment, will employers be required to pay staff for unused paid depart?

A: Employers are usually not required to pay staff accrued however unused paid depart supplied beneath 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 beneath 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 beneath 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, not less than, or greater than, 40 hours of paid depart?

A: If an employer already has in place any sort of paid depart coverage that gives not less than 40 hours of paid depart, the PLFAW Act states that an employer shouldn’t be required to change the coverage, supplied that the coverage provides an worker the choice, on the worker’s discretion, to take paid depart for any motive.

For instance, if an employer provides paid depart solely as a part of its trip coverage and supplies not 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 staff to make use of all or any of these 40 hours for “any motive 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 not less than three years, and permit the Illinois Division of Labor (IDOL) entry to the information “at affordable instances throughout enterprise hours to watch compliance with the PLFAW Act.” Upon an worker’s request, employers that present paid depart beneath 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 shall be required to publish in a conspicuous place the place different notices are typically posted a discover that the IDOL will put together, summarizing the necessities of the PLFAW Act, which additionally supplies data on submitting a cost. Individually, that data additionally should be supplied to staff in a written doc, written worker handbook or coverage guide. 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 shall be required to request a discover within the applicable language from the IDOL. Employers shall 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, treatments shall be accessible to staff who consider their employer has violated their rights beneath the PLFAW Act?

A: The PLFAW Act will prohibit employers from taking hostile motion towards staff for (a): exercising or trying to train their rights beneath 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 beneath the PLFAW Act.

As well as, the PLFAW Act will prohibit employers from contemplating using paid depart beneath the PLFAW Act as a damaging consider any employment motion that includes evaluating, selling, disciplining or counting paid depart beneath a no-fault attendance coverage.

 The IDOL is accountable for administering and imposing the PLFAW Act. Workers might file complaints with the IDOL inside three years of the alleged violation. Employers discovered to violate the PLFAW Act are liable to affected staff for precise damages (i.e. the quantity of the underpayment), compensatory damages, attorneys’ charges/prices, skilled witness charges and civil penalties of not lower than $500 and less than $1,000.

We are going to proceed to watch and report on developments with to the PLFAW Act and supply any updates as they turn into accessible. Employers with questions on how this impacts them might contact a member of Greensfelder’s Employment & Labor apply group to debate.