This memorandum is meant to bring to your attention that Public Act 102-1050 was enacted by the General Assembly changing the Child Bereavement Leave Act to the Family Bereavement Leave Act (hereinafter the “Act”). (820 ILCS 154/1, et. al.). If you have an employment policy that was adopted to be consistent with the Child Bereavement Leave Act, you will need to make an amendment to your policy prior to January 1, 2023.
The Act applies to all employers and employees that qualify under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). FMLA generally defines an “employer” as any business that employs 50 or more employees each working day during each of 20 or more calendar work weeks in the current or preceding year, and an “employee” as an employee who has been employed for at least 12 months by the employer for at least 1,250 hours of service during the previous 12-month period.
Section 10 of the Act (820 ILCS 154/10) requires that all employees be entitled to a maximum of 2 weeks (10 days) of unpaid bereavement leave for the following:
(1) Attend the funeral or alternative to a funeral of a covered
family member;
(2) Make arrangements necessitated by the death of the
covered family member;
(3) Grieve the death of the covered family member; or
(4) Be absent from work due to:
(i) a miscarriage;
(ii) an unsuccessful round of intrauterine insemination or
of an assisted reproductive technology procedure;
(iii) a failed adoption match or an adoption that is not
finalized because it is contested by another party;
(iv) a failed surrogacy agreement;
(v) a diagnosis that negatively impacts pregnancy or
fertility; or
(vi) a stillbirth.
“Covered family member” means an employee's child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent.
For leave resulting from an event listed under paragraph (4) above, reasonable documentation shall include a form, to be provided by the Illinois Department of Labor, to be filled out by a health care practitioner who has treated the employee or the employee's spouse or domestic partner, or surrogate, for an event listed under paragraph (4), or documentation from the adoption or surrogacy organization that the employee worked with related to an event listed under paragraph (4), certifying that the employee or his or her spouse or domestic partner has experienced an event listed under paragraph (4). The employer may not require that the employee identify which category of event the leave pertains to as a condition of exercising rights under this Act.
After the enactment of Public Act 102-1050, the Illinois Municipal League emailed its members of the changes to the Act. The email included a link to IML’s website with a synopsis of the Act originally produced by the General Assembly. This synopsis originally produced by the General Assembly included provisions from prior versions of the bill. As a point of clarification, Public Act 102-1050 does not require employers to grant each employee 24 hours of paid leave time on the employee’s first workday of each calendar year.
If you have any questions or need assistance in amending your bereavement leave policy, do not hesitate to contact me.
815.730.9500 x137
