In August, the Illinois Legislature passed the Family Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (Neonatal Care Act), which expands guaranteed and protected unpaid leave available to employees. The Neonatal Care Act grants Illinois employees unpaid leave to care for a child who is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
The Neonatal Care Act applies to employers with 16 or more employees. The amount of leave that employers must grant to an employee is dependent on the size of the employer. All employers with 16 to 50 employees must provide employees with 10 days of unpaid leave and employers with 51 or more employees must provide up to 20 days of unpaid leave. Employers are not required to provide unpaid leave to independent contractors under the Neonatal Care Act.
Employees who elect to take leave under the Neonatal Care Act can do so continuously or intermittently. Employers are allowed to set minimum leave requirements prohibiting employees from taking leave in less than two-hour increments. While employers may require documentation or reasonable verification of an employee’s length of stay within a NICU, they are prohibited from requesting any documentation that is protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) or any other law.
Employers should take note that unlike many other paid and unpaid leave laws in Illinois, leave under the Neonatal Care Act may be taken in addition to, and upon completion of, leave available under...
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