Bill Text: IL HB5221 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Engrossed

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Bill Title: Amends the Public Employee Disability Act. Provides that the term "eligible employee" as used in the Act includes firefighters employed as full-time paramedics or firefighters who perform paramedic duties.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-3)

Status: (Passed) 2018-11-30 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 100-1143 [HB5221 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2017-HB5221-Engrossed.html

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AN ACT concerning government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Public Employee Disability Act is amended by
changing Section 1 as follows:
(5 ILCS 345/1) (from Ch. 70, par. 91)
Sec. 1. Disability benefit.
(a) For the purposes of this Section, "eligible employee"
means any part-time or full-time State correctional officer or
any other full or part-time employee of the Department of
Corrections, any full or part-time employee of the Prisoner
Review Board, any full or part-time employee of the Department
of Human Services working within a penal institution or a State
mental health or developmental disabilities facility operated
by the Department of Human Services, and any full-time law
enforcement officer or full-time firefighter, including a
full-time paramedic or a firefighter who performs paramedic
duties, who is employed by the State of Illinois, any unit of
local government (including any home rule unit), any State
supported college or university, or any other public entity
granted the power to employ persons for such purposes by law.
(b) Whenever an eligible employee suffers any injury in the
line of duty which causes him to be unable to perform his

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duties, he shall continue to be paid by the employing public
entity on the same basis as he was paid before the injury, with
no deduction from his sick leave credits, compensatory time for
overtime accumulations or vacation, or service credits in a
public employee pension fund during the time he is unable to
perform his duties due to the result of the injury, but not
longer than one year in relation to the same injury. However,
no injury to an employee of the Department of Corrections or
the Prisoner Review Board working within a penal institution or
an employee of the Department of Human Services working within
a departmental mental health or developmental disabilities
facility shall qualify the employee for benefits under this
Section unless the injury is the direct or indirect result of
violence by inmates of the penal institution or residents of
the mental health or developmental disabilities facility.
(c) At any time during the period for which continuing
compensation is required by this Act, the employing public
entity may order at the expense of that entity physical or
medical examinations of the injured person to determine the
degree of disability.
(d) During this period of disability, the injured person
shall not be employed in any other manner, with or without
monetary compensation. Any person who is employed in violation
of this paragraph forfeits the continuing compensation
provided by this Act from the time such employment begins. Any
salary compensation due the injured person from workers'

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compensation or any salary due him from any type of insurance
which may be carried by the employing public entity shall
revert to that entity during the time for which continuing
compensation is paid to him under this Act. Any person with a
disability receiving compensation under the provisions of this
Act shall not be entitled to any benefits for which he would
qualify because of his disability under the provisions of the
Illinois Pension Code.
(e) Any employee of the State of Illinois, as defined in
Section 14-103.05 of the Illinois Pension Code, who becomes
permanently unable to perform the duties of such employment due
to an injury received in the active performance of his duties
as a State employee as a result of a willful act of violence by
another employee of the State of Illinois, as so defined,
committed during such other employee's course of employment and
after January 1, 1988, shall be eligible for benefits pursuant
to the provisions of this Section. For purposes of this
Section, permanent disability is defined as a diagnosis or
prognosis of an inability to return to current job duties by a
physician licensed to practice medicine in all of its branches.
(f) The compensation and other benefits provided to
part-time employees covered by this Section shall be calculated
based on the percentage of time the part-time employee was
scheduled to work pursuant to his or her status as a part-time
employee.
(g) Pursuant to paragraphs (h) and (i) of Section 6 of

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Article VII of the Illinois Constitution, this Act specifically
denies and limits the exercise by home rule units of any power
which is inconsistent herewith, and all existing laws and
ordinances which are inconsistent herewith are hereby
superseded. This Act does not preempt the concurrent exercise
by home rule units of powers consistent herewith.
This Act does not apply to any home rule unit with a
population of over 1,000,000.
(h) In those cases where the injury to a State employee for
which a benefit is payable under this Act was caused under
circumstances creating a legal liability for damages on the
part of some person other than the State employer, all of the
rights and privileges, including the right to notice of suit
brought against such other person and the right to commence or
join in such suit, as given the employer, together with the
conditions or obligations imposed under paragraph (b) of
Section 5 of the Workers' Compensation Act, are also given and
granted to the State, to the end that, with respect to State
employees only, the State may be paid or reimbursed for the
amount of benefit paid or to be paid by the State to the
injured employee or his or her personal representative out of
any judgment, settlement, or payment for such injury obtained
by such injured employee or his or her personal representative
from such other person by virtue of the injury.
(Source: P.A. 99-143, eff. 7-27-15.)