Here are some of the mandates that will most impact the business community.

HB 1363 (Guzzardi/Villa) amended the Gender Violence Act to define “employee,” “employer,” and “workplace” to clarify when an employer is liable for actions of employees. The legislation changes the definition of “gender-related violence” to also mean domestic violence. Provides that an employer is only liable for gender-related violence committed in the work environment by an employee or agent of the employer. Liability also only extends to gender-related violence that occurs while the employee was directly performing the employee’s job duties and the job duties were the proximate cause of the injury, or while an agent of the employer was directly involved in the performance of the contracted work and the contracted work was the proximate cause of the injury. Provides that an employer is liable for gender-related violence if the employer: failed to supervise, train, or monitor the employee who engaged in the gender-related violence; or failed to investigate complaints or reports directly provided to a supervisor, manager, owner, or another person designated by the employer of similar conduct by an employee or agent of the employer and the employer failed to take remedial measures in response to the complaints or reports. Requires an action against an employer for gender-related violence to be commenced within four years after the cause of action accrued.

HB 2068 (Mah/Villivalam) created the Transportation Benefits Program Act which requires employers to allow a covered employee to elect to deduct from taxable wages and compensation the employee’s purchase of a transit pass to use public transit or for the purchase of qualified parking, up to the maximum level allowed by federal tax law. A “covered employer” includes an employer that employs 50 or more covered employees in Cook County and specified townships in the collar counties and at an address that is located within one mile of a regularly scheduled transit stop.

HB 2493 (Ortiz/Peters) amended the Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act to allow an employee to take up to 10-days of unpaid leave from work for specified reasons relating to a family or household member who is killed in a crime of violence.

HB 2845 (Vella/Cappel) amended the Prevailing Wage Act to include the removal, hauling, and transportation of biosolids, lime sludge, and lime residue from a water treatment plant or facility and the disposal of biosolids, lime sludge, and lime residue removed from a water treatment plant or facility at a landfill. This legislation breaks the veil on transportation of materials and expands prevailing wage outside of the construction site.

HB 2907 (Yednock/Villavalam) amended the Labor Dispute Act. Provides that no award of monetary damages, except for damage done to an employer’s property as a result of conduct prohibited by law, shall be granted by any court of this state in any case involving a labor dispute.

HB 3370 (Vella/Castro) amended the Prevailing Wage Act. Changes the definition of “public works” to include power washing projects conducted by public bodies or paid for with public funds.

HB 3396 (Yednock/Villavilam) amended the Labor Dispute Act. Prohibits a person who, with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding a picket or other demonstration or protest, places any object in the public way. Provides that anyone who does so commits a Class A misdemeanor with a minimum fine of $500.

HB 3516 (Syed/Villivalam) amended the Employee Blood Donation Leave Act. Provides that an employee may take up to 10 days of leave during a 12-month period to donate an organ. Applies to employers with 51 or more employees.

SB 208 (Gordon-Booth/Lightford) created the Paid Leave for All Workers Act. Requires employers to provide at least one hour of paid leave for every forty hours an employee works, up to a minimum of 40 hours per year. Exempts specified employees.

SB 2034 (West/Villa) created the Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act. Provides that, depending upon the size of the employer, an employee is entitled to unpaid leave following the death of a child by either suicide or homicide. Employees at employers with more than 250 full-time employees in Illinois are entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Employees at employers with more than 50 but less than 250 full-time employees are entitled to up to 6 weeks of unpaid leave. Excludes most state and federal employees.