Public Act 100-0324
 
SB1895 EnrolledLRB100 11131 MJP 21397 b


  
    AN ACT concerning regulation.
  
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
 
represented in the General Assembly:
  


 
 
    Section 5. The Volunteer Emergency Worker Job Protection 
Act is amended  by changing Section 5 as follows:
 
    (50 ILCS 748/5)

    Sec. 5. Volunteer emergency worker; when termination of 
employment prohibited.


    (a) No public or private employer may terminate an employee 
who is a
volunteer
emergency worker because the employee, when 
acting as a volunteer emergency worker, is
absent from or late 
to his or her employment in order to respond to an
emergency 
prior to the time the employee is to report to his or her place 
of
employment.

    (a-5) A public or private employer shall not discipline an 
employee who is a volunteer emergency worker if the employee, 
in the scope of acting as a volunteer emergency worker, 
responds to an emergency phone call or text message during work 
hours that requests the person's volunteer emergency services. 
This subsection (a-5) does not apply to a person employed by a 
public or private vehicle service provider and who is in the 
course of performing services as Emergency Medical Services 
personnel as defined in Section 3.5 of the Emergency Medical 
Services (EMS) Systems Act. This subsection (a-5) shall not 
diminish or supersede an employer's written workplace policy, a 
collective bargaining agreement, administrative guidelines, or 
other applicable written rules administered by the employer. 
Existing written policies governing the use of cell phones 
shall prevail and control. 

    (b) An employer may charge, against the employee's regular 
pay, any time
that
an
employee who is a
volunteer emergency 
worker loses from employment because of the employee's
response 
to an emergency in the course of performing his or her duties 
as a
volunteer emergency worker.


    (c) In the case of an employee who is a
volunteer emergency 
worker and who loses time
from his or her employment in order 
to respond to an emergency in the course of
performing his or 
her duties as a volunteer emergency worker, the
employer has 
the right to request the employee to provide the
employer with 
a written statement from the supervisor or acting supervisor of

the
volunteer fire department or governmental entity that the 
volunteer emergency worker serves stating that the employee 
responded to an emergency
and stating the time and date of the 
emergency.


    (d) An employee who is a
volunteer emergency worker and who 
may be absent from or late to his or her
employment in
order to 
respond to an emergency in the course of performing his or her 
duties
as a volunteer emergency worker must make a reasonable 
effort to notify his
or
her employer that he or she may be 
absent or late.


(Source: P.A. 93-1027, eff. 8-25-04; 94-599, eff. 1-1-06.)