Bill Text: IL HB4598 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act. Provides that an employee that resigns from a position due to a return to office policy shall be paid any severance pay that the employee would have been entitled to if he or she had been terminated from the position by the employer. Amends the Unemployment Insurance Act. Provides that specified provisions shall not apply to an individual who has left work voluntarily due to a return to office policy.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-31 - Referred to Rules Committee [HB4598 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2023-HB4598-Introduced.html

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103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2023 and 2024 HB4598 Introduced , by Rep. Barbara Hernandez SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
820 ILCS 115/5 from Ch. 48, par. 39m-5
820 ILCS 405/601 from Ch. 48, par. 431
Amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act. Provides that an employee that resigns from a position due to a return to office policy shall be paid any severance pay that the employee would have been entitled to if he or she had been terminated from the position by the employer. Amends the Unemployment Insurance Act. Provides that specified provisions shall not apply to an individual who has left work voluntarily due to a return to office policy.
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A BILL FOR
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AN ACT concerning employment.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act is
amended by changing Section 5 as follows:
(820 ILCS 115/5) (from Ch. 48, par. 39m-5)
Sec. 5. Every employer shall pay the final compensation of
separated employees in full, at the time of separation, if
possible, but in no case later than the next regularly
scheduled payday for such employee. Where such employee
requests in writing that his final compensation be paid by
check and mailed to him, the employer shall comply with this
request.
Unless otherwise provided in a collective bargaining
agreement, whenever a contract of employment or employment
policy provides for paid vacations, and an employee resigns or
is terminated without having taken all vacation time earned in
accordance with such contract of employment or employment
policy, the monetary equivalent of all earned vacation shall
be paid to him or her as part of his or her final compensation
at his or her final rate of pay and no employment contract or
employment policy shall provide for forfeiture of earned
vacation time upon separation.

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An employee that resigns from a position due to a return to
office policy shall be paid any severance pay that the
employee would have been entitled to if he or she had been
terminated from the position by the employer.
(Source: P.A. 83-199.)
Section 10. The Unemployment Insurance Act is amended by
changing Section 601 as follows:
(820 ILCS 405/601) (from Ch. 48, par. 431)
Sec. 601. Voluntary leaving.
A. An individual shall be ineligible for benefits for the
week in which he or she has left work voluntarily without good
cause attributable to the employing unit and, thereafter,
until he or she has become reemployed and has had earnings
equal to or in excess of his or her current weekly benefit
amount in each of four calendar weeks which are either for
services in employment, or have been or will be reported
pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Insurance
Contributions Act by each employing unit for which such
services are performed and which submits a statement
certifying to that fact.
B. The provisions of this Section shall not apply to an
individual who has left work voluntarily:
1. Because he or she is deemed physically unable to
perform his or her work by a licensed and practicing

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physician, or because the individual's assistance is
necessary for the purpose of caring for his or her spouse,
child, or parent who, according to a licensed and
practicing physician or as otherwise reasonably verified,
is in poor physical or mental health or is a person with a
mental or physical disability and the employer is unable
to accommodate the individual's need to provide such
assistance;
2. To accept other bona fide work and, after such
acceptance, the individual is either not unemployed in
each of 2 weeks, or earns remuneration for such work equal
to at least twice his or her current weekly benefit
amount;
3. In lieu of accepting a transfer to other work
offered to the individual by the employing unit under the
terms of a collective bargaining agreement or pursuant to
an established employer plan, program, or policy, if the
acceptance of such other work by the individual would
require the separation from that work of another
individual currently performing it;
4. Solely because of the sexual harassment of the
individual by another employee. Sexual harassment means
(1) unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,
sexually motivated physical contact or other conduct or
communication which is made a term or condition of the
employment or (2) the employee's submission to or

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rejection of such conduct or communication which is the
basis for decisions affecting employment, or (3) when such
conduct or communication has the purpose or effect of
substantially interfering with an individual's work
performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or
offensive working environment and the employer knows or
should know of the existence of the harassment and fails
to take timely and appropriate action;
5. Which he or she had accepted after separation from
other work, and the work which he or she left voluntarily
would be deemed unsuitable under the provisions of Section
603;
6.(a) Because the individual left work due to verified
domestic violence as defined in Section 103 of the
Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986 where the domestic
violence caused the individual to reasonably believe that
his or her continued employment would jeopardize his or
her safety or the safety of his or her spouse, minor child,
or parent
if the individual provides the following:
(i) notice to the employing unit of the reason for
the individual's voluntarily leaving; and
(ii) to the Department provides:
(A) an order of protection or other
documentation of equitable relief issued by a
court of competent jurisdiction; or

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(B) a police report or criminal charges
documenting the domestic violence; or
(C) medical documentation of the domestic
violence; or
(D) evidence of domestic violence from a
member of the clergy, attorney, counselor, social
worker, health worker or domestic violence shelter
worker.
(b) If the individual does not meet the provisions of
subparagraph (a), the individual shall be held to have
voluntarily terminated employment for the purpose of
determining the individual's eligibility for benefits
pursuant to subsection A.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision to the
contrary, evidence of domestic violence experienced by an
individual, or his or her spouse, minor child, or parent,
including the individual's statement and corroborating
evidence, shall not be disclosed by the Department unless
consent for disclosure is given by the individual.
7. Because, due to a change in location of employment
of the individual's spouse, the individual left work to
accompany his or her spouse to a place from which it is
impractical to commute or because the individual left
employment to accompany a spouse who has been reassigned
from one military assignment to another. The employer's
account, however, shall not be charged for any benefits

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