HB5343 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

LRB101 18777 JLS 68232 b

101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2019 and 2020
HB5343

Introduced , by Rep. Marcus C. Evans, Jr.

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

820 ILCS 65/12 new

Amends the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act. Provides that employers employing 100 or more full-time employees shall provide severance pay to employees. Provides that employers that employ 100 or more full-time workers must provide notice 90 days, rather than 60 days, before a layoff order takes effect. Effective immediately.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning employment.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act is amended by adding Section 12 as follows:

(820 ILCS 65/12 new)

Sec. 12. Mass layoff; severance pay.

(a) If an employer that employees more than 100 full-time employees conducts a mass layoff, the employer shall:

(1) provide not less than 90 days, or the period of time required pursuant to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 29 U.S.C. 2101 et seq., whichever is longer, before the first termination of employment occurs in connection with the termination or transfer of operations or mass layoff, notification of the termination or transfer of operations or mass layoff to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the chief elected officials of the municipality and county governments within which the establishment is located, each employee whose employment is to be terminated, and any collective bargaining units of employees at the establishment; and

(2) provide to each full-time employee whose employment is terminated and to whom the employer provides less than the number of days of notification required under item (1) severance pay equal to one week of pay for each full year of employment. The rate of severance pay provided by the employer under this Section shall be the average regular rate of compensation received during the employee's last 3 years of employment with the employer or the final regular rate of compensation paid to the employee, whichever rate is higher. Severance under this Section shall be regarded as compensation due to an employee for back pay and losses associated with the termination of the employment relationship, and earned in full upon the termination of the employment relationship, notwithstanding the calculation of the amount of the payment with reference to the employee's length of service. The severance pay provided by the employer pursuant to this Section shall be in addition to any severance pay provided by the employer pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement or for any other reason, except that any back pay provided by the employer to the employee pursuant to Section 5 of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 29 U.S.C. 2104, because of a violation of Section 3 of that Act shall be credited toward meeting the severance pay requirements of this Section.

(b) In determining whether a termination or transfer of operations or a mass layoff is subject to the notification requirements of this Section, any terminations of employment for 2 or more groups at a single establishment occurring within any 90-day period, when each group has less than the number of terminations which would trigger the notification requirements of this Section, but the aggregate for all of the groups exceeds that number, shall be regarded as subject to the notification requirements unless the employer demonstrates that the cause of the terminations for each group is separate and distinct from the causes of the terminations for the other group or groups.

(c) As used in this Section, "employer" includes any individual, partnership, association, corporation, or any person or group of persons acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee, and includes any person who, directly or indirectly, owns and operates the nominal employer, or owns a corporate subsidiary that, directly or indirectly, owns and operates the nominal employer.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.