Illinois employers face another wave of employee-friendly state laws and local ordinances that they must take action on now and plan for in 2023.

Expansion of Bereavement Leave Requirements

On June 9, 2022, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 3120 into law, which will rename and expand the former Child Bereavement Leave Act into the Family Bereavement Leave Act (FBLA), effective January 1, 2023. Under the new FBLA, Illinois employers will be required to provide unpaid bereavement leave to employees under a much broader set of circumstances than under the current Child Bereavement Act, which currently provides unpaid leave only for an employee's loss of a child. The amendment does not change the amount of protected bereavement leave provided, nor the Illinois employers covered under the requirements.

Under the new FBLA, Illinois employers that are covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act, which generally includes those with 50 or more employees within 75 miles, must provide employees up to two weeks (10 work days) of unpaid bereavement time off from work, up to a maximum of six weeks per 12-month period. The amendment expands the reasons for protected bereavement leave to include the employee's loss of a covered family member. The new FBLA definition of a "covered family member" includes an employee's child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent or stepparent. "Child" continues to include...

Read Full Story: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/employee-rights-labour-relations/1207326/...