New Illinois Law Protects Temporary Workers' Rights and Safety

On Friday, August 4, 2023, the Illinois H.B. 2862 (the “Bill”) was approved by Governor J.B. Pritzker. This Bill substantially amends the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act (the “Act”) to impose expansive new duties on Illinois staffing agencies (the “Agency”), as well as those employers that rely on temporary workers (the “Client”). The Bill includes Emergency Rules which became effective on August 7th as well as Proposed Permanent Rules which will be subject to a 45-day minimum public comment period before going into effect. The Bill does not apply to professional or clerical workers.

The Bill amends the original language in the Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act enacted in 2000 that provides basic protections for low-wage temporary workers, such as entitling workers to detailed payment statements and notice of any deductions or other changes to their pay rate. The amendment to this original Act will expand on these protections.

Equal Pay for Equal Work – In this provision, if a temporary worker is assigned to work at a Client for more than 90 calendar days within any 12-month period, either consecutively or intermittently, the worker must receive at least the same pay rate and equivalent benefits of the lowest paid directly hired employee of the Client who has the same level of seniority and who performs similar work. This provision applies to employees who have worked at a Client 90 days after the August 4th effective date. Similar work includes work that requires “substantially similar skill, effort, and responsibility” and work that is “performed under similar working conditions.” If the Client is unable to identify a “comparative employee”, the temporary worker must receive at least the pay rate and equivalent benefits of the lowest paid Client employee with the closest level of seniority. “Benefits” is defined as health care, vision, dental, life insurance, retirement, leave (paid and unpaid), other similar employee benefits, and other employee benefits as required by State and federal law. As an alternative to providing equivalent benefits to the temporary worker, Agencies may instead pay the cash equivalent of the Client’s cost of benefits.

Upon request, the Client must provide Agencies all necessary information relating to job duties, pay, and benefits of directly hired employees in order for Agencies to comply with the Act.

Wage Payment and Notice – This provision of the Act was amended to state that in the notice provided to workers at the time wages are paid, the agency must provide the calculation of the agency’s placement fee that would be charged if the worker is hired by the client, along with the number of work days remaining before the agency cannot charge a placement fee to hire the worker.

The Right to Refuse Assignment Due to Labor Dispute – This provision allows temporary workers the right to refuse assignments from a Client who is experiencing a strike, lockout, or any other labor dispute. The Agency must provide this statement in writing to the temporary workers about their rights without prejudice to receiving another assignment. This notice must be given to the workers at the time of or before dispatching to the Client.

Employment Notice – The Act requires that at time of dispatch, each temporary worker must be provided with a statement that contains the following information:

The name of the temporary worker
The name and nature of work to be performed
The wages offered
The name and address of the destination of the temporary worker
The terms of transportation
Whether a meal or equipment or both is provided by the Agency or the Client and the cost of the meal and equipment, if any
If using codes on the temporary worker’s paycheck stub to identify Clients, the code or codes that correlate to where the temporary worker is being sent to work
Information regarding safety hazards and concerns at the Client, identifying the representative of the Client to whom workers should report safety concerns at the workplace to, and a statement that safety hazards and concerns may be reported to the Department by calling the Department’s Day and Temporary Laborer Services Act toll-free hotline at 1-877-314-7052 or emailing DayLabor@illinois.gov
If a strike, lockout or other labor dispute exists, then a written statement in the primary language of the temporary worker notifying them of a strike, lockout, or other labor dispute and the worker’s right to refuse the assignment.

This statement must be signed by an authorized agent of the Agency stating that the information contained in the statement is true and correct. If the temporary worker is not dispatched from the Agency office directly, the statement can be provided by hand, email, text message, or US mail. This statement only needs to be provided on the first day of the assignment and on any day that any of the terms listed on the employment notice are changed.

Safety Obligations – The Act establishes provisions for joint responsibilities related to safety, similar to OSHA’s Temporary Worker Initiative. Both parties are responsible for compliance with these requirements:

Assessment Prior to Placement

Clients must notify the Agency of all of their safety and health practices and all known hazards at the actual location where the worker will be working in order for the Agency to assess the safety conditions, worker’s tasks, and the Client’s safety program.
If the Agency becomes aware of an additional safety or health practice, or hazard at the actual worksite, the Agency must notify the Client as soon as possible.
No worker shall be asked to work at a worksite with a job hazard known by the Agency unless the hazard has been fixed or addressed by the Client prior to assignment.

Training

General safety training for recognized industry hazards that workers may encounter at the Client’s worksite must be provided in the worker’s preferred language and at no expense to the worker. This must include, but is not limited to:

Hazards that have been reported to the Client or Agency by a worker
Hazards which necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE)
Fall hazards
Electrocution hazards
Hazards of being struck by objects
Getting caught or between hazards
Machinery-related hazards
Chemical or other substance-related hazards
Repetitive-motion hazards
Emergency action plans
Information regarding actions taken by the Client to eliminate, control, and protect workers from the hazards, including what steps workers should take to avoid or control hazards (this must include emergency evacuation and shelter-in-place procedures).

Documentation of the training content and date of training must be maintained by the Agency and provided to the worker.
A general description of the training including topics covered must be submitted to the Client (electronically or on paper) at the start of the contract.
Workers may refuse a new job task if the task has not been reviewed or if the worker has not had appropriate training on the new task.