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Senate Bill 2034 was heard before the Senate on Friday. It
provides that depending on the size of the parent's employer,
that parent could receive 6-12 extra weeks of bereavement time
after their child's death if they died of suicide or homicide.
State Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, discussed the measure
before the Senate and said the bill is tailored to parents
who've gone through traumatic incidents.
"There is existing leave under the Family Bereavement Act. We
wanted to tailor this to provide extended leave, especially for
those in traumatic instances," Villa said.
The Family Bereavement Act offers parents and other family
members up to 10 days of unpaid leave. Under Villa's measure,
the leave would be extended to 12 weeks if that person works for
a company with over 250 full-time employees and 6 days for those
under 250 full-time employees.
Much of the debate focused on parents who have lost a child due
to other reasons.
State Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, asked why these instances are
not included in the legislation.
"So a child's death related to a car accident, a bike accident,
situations ... where two children died riding bikes, children
dying of cancer or other terminal illness. Those are not
included within the bereavement," Tracy said.
State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said many smaller
businesses under the qualified number of employees would be
excluded from this benefit, even if they lose a child to suicide
or homicide.
"If you have a child that dies by homicide or suicide, some of
you get this benefit and some of you don't," Plummer said. "So
as the sponsor of the legislation, my question to you is why do
some of employees get this benefit and why do some employees not
get this benefit."
Villa was unable to answer the question but did call Plummer's
question a "great starting point to address the issue that
families experience."
The measure passed the Senate and now awaits further action from
the House.
Andrew Hensel reports on issues in Chicago and
Statewide. He has been with The Center Square News since April
of 2021 and was previously with The Joliet Slammers.
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