Legislation passed
by House Democrats, who claim it “reforms” Illinois’ workers’ compensation law,
is expected to be heard in the Senate Judiciary committee next week. NFIB and other Illinois business groups remain opposed.
HB 1287 simply
codifies current law as it pertains to Illinois’ causation standard under
workers’ compensation statute. The bill
was passed in the Illinois House in June with only Democrat votes.
The business
community, in a joint statement, argued simply taking current case law and
putting it into the statute does not equate to reform nor does it provide any
savings to employers in Illinois.
Illinois has the
7th highest cost of workers’ compensation in the United States with workers’
compensation costs consistently cited as one of the primary reasons that
companies move out of state or choose not to invest capital and grow jobs in
Illinois.
HB 1287 offers zero
workers’ compensation savings for employers and likely will increase the cost
of workers’ compensation.
We oppose the bill
because we believe it does the following:
- Codifies the current “any cause”
standard as to whether an employer is responsible for an injury; - Doubles down on the bad decisions by
our Courts by codifying the expanded liability of Illinois employers for
traveling employees; - Increases litigation for employers by
introducing joint and several liability of employers when assessing fault for
repetitive motion injuries; - Duplicates and adds additional
regulatory burdens on employers that self-insure by requiring data to be
reported by them to the Illinois Department of Insurance; and - Requires a prior approval rate
regulation system for insurance premiums that returns Illinois to the days of
decades ago when insurance rate-making was a political football, delayed and
extensively litigated.
Please contact your senators today and tell them to vote “no” on SB 1287.
