Paid Sick Days
For clarification purposes I'd like to detail and summarize the passage of SB208 last week on the last day of the 102'nd Illinois General Assembly, since you or members may have some questions about the legislation. SB208 grants MOST Illinois workers 40 hours (5 days) of paid sick days over a twelve month period. Rail workers, however, are not included due to federal courts ruling preemption. Railroads filed federal lawsuits years ago in response to California and Massachusetts "Paid Sick Day" laws, and won opinions preempting rail workers from collecting these so-called state benefits, with the courts ruling that the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA) administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) are the sole provider of such sickness benefits.
For background, I was working with the initial proponents of this legislation as far back as 2017. I was the only rail labor representative working to have rail workers included, and we were certainly included in initial drafts of the legislation. But the federal court decisions that year made it incredibly difficult to continue to argue for our inclusion, although I was still insisting that we should be included as courts considered our appeals to the preemption argument. Even in 2019, when we passed Two Person Crew (SB24) in Illinois, I was working with proponents to include us. But once it was clear that federal courts were not going to rule in our favor, I wasn't able to argue for our inclusion any further.
For further background, and as I mentioned working with the original proponents, this legislation was introduced by the groups Women Employed and the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. The impetus for the bill was to support low-wage workers, in many cases single mothers and minorities, who were not covered by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement (CBA). As a matter of fact, construction workers who are covered under a CBA aren't eligible for these benefits either.
I hope this helps if you've received any questions regarding SB208 or if you've read news stories about the legislation. Currently SB208 will await the Governor's signature before becoming law. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me, thanks.
Robert W. Guy
State Director
Illinois Legislative Board
SMART-Transportation Division
126 N. Scott St.
Joliet, IL. 60432
https://t.congressweb.com/w/?DAJDUTYSVK
BIPARTISAN PAID SICK LEAVE TO BE INTRODUCED IN U.S. SENATE.
On Thursday, February 9th, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) announced at a press conference that they plan to introduce bipartisan legislation mandating rail carriers provide a minimum of seven (7) paid sick leave days per year. The proposed legislation follows the Tentative Agreement vote, where a paid sick leave amendment failed in a close vote in the U.S. Senate (52-43, 60 votes needed) after having passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It is not often that you get two senators with vast ideological differences to agree, so it is rewarding to see both Senator Sanders and Senator Braun champion this commonsense legislation: Senator Sanders said,
"At a time of record-breaking profits, that industry can and must guarantee at least seven paid sick days to every rail worker in America. In the year 2023, that's not a whole lot to ask."
Senator Braun went on to say,
"When I heard you didn't have a guaranteed sick day, I wondered how could you get by with that in this day and age? You don't know when you're going to get sick," Braun said. "It's going to be an issue on keeping employees long-term." "Most of this stuff should be natural, and if you do it, it's in the best interest of your company, long term."
Once legislation is introduced, look for a call to action to have your senators support and cosponsor this important legislation. Additional information, including video highlights below: