Bills addressing warehouse quotas, nursing homes, prostitution pass in session’s final days

[January 11, 2025]  By Jade Aubrey & Bridgette Fox

Lawmakers in Springfield approved a measure that aims to protect warehouse workers whose workdays center on hitting quotas.

House Bill 2547 states employees are not required to meet quotas that would prevent them from eating lunch or using the bathroom. The bill prohibits an employer from firing someone for missing quotas because of these bathroom and meal breaks and ensures that if the employee believes they’re wrongly disciplined, they have a right to sue.

HB 2547 would also require employers to provide new warehouse employees with a written description of their quota requirements when hired, as well as any “potential adverse employment action,” essentially disciplinary actions, that they may face if the quota is not met. The employer must give the employee a written update within five days if they make any changes to quotas.

Bill sponsor Rep. Kevin Olickal, D-Chicago, said some warehouse employees are given such large quotas that they are unable to take breaks to rest, eat or use the restroom.

Pasquale Gianni of the Teamsters Joint Council 25 union in Chicago said his union was made aware of non-unionized warehouse employees that reported they’ve had to urinate in water bottles in order to hit their quotas. Gianni said he heard these employees were afraid that the time it would take to commute to and from the bathroom would prevent them from hitting their quota, which may result in them losing their job.

Gianni also said the bill would “help create a floor” for non-unionized warehouse settings throughout Illinois – as these issues mainly plague warehouse employees who don’t have a union to represent them. He said these non-unionized warehouses have higher employee turnover rates, which make it hard for employees to unionize.

The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and Illinois Chamber of Commerce opposed the bill, arguing that the terminology of “adverse employment action,” which the bill defined as “an action that a reasonable employee would find materially adverse,” is too broad. They aired concerns that employees could claim any disciplinary action taken against them by their employer falls under this term, which may make employers afraid to take disciplinary action.

Many Republicans voted against the bill after airing similar concerns. It cleared the Senate 35-15 and the House 79-34.

Olickal said, “the idea that we’re going to see frivolous lawsuits is unfounded.” He said that other states including Minnesota, California and New York have adopted similar bills and have not run into those incidents.

If signed by the governor, the bill would take effect Jan. 1, 2026.

The measure was one of 24 that cleared the legislature during its four-day lame duck session this week before a new General Assembly was inaugurated Wednesday.

The Illinois House is pictured during its lame duck session that ran from Jan. 4-7 in Springfield. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)

Nursing home protections
Lawmakers also approved a bill aimed at protecting nursing home residents from retaliation if they report violations at the facility.

House Bill 2474 aims to prohibit nursing home staff from taking “retaliatory actions” against residents who engage in protected activities, such as speaking out about rule or law violations in their facilities.

The bill specifically protects residents who: talk to a supervisor of the facility, the public, or to an outside authority about a rule or law being broken by the facility staff; give information or testimony during an investigation of a facility; or seek help to leave the facility. It gives residents a private right to sue if they believe the facility broke the law.

The bill would also require nursing home facilities to file any resident complaints that they’ve been improperly retaliated against with the Illinois Department of Public Health and to give a brief description of any complaints filed to the resident’s next of kin once a year.

The measure passed 48-2 in the Senate and 89-16 in the House.

Prostitution laws
Police departments across the state may soon be required to start working on policies that prohibit their officers from having sex with any person they are investigating for prostitution.

Under a measure that cleared the General Assembly this week, departments would have until July 1 to put the new rule in place. It still needs a signature from Gov. JB Pritzker to become law.

House Bill 4410 passed Tuesday with a vote of 73-38 after clearing the Senate 43-10.

The bill also changes existing law’s reference of “juvenile prostitution” to “commercial sexual exploitation of a child.”

On top of that change, the term “juvenile prostitute” in existing law will be replaced with “sexually exploited child,” and the word “prostitute” in reference to adults will be replaced with “person engaged in the sex trade.”

State law enforcement agencies must also seal their records about a person’s Class 4 felony conviction for prostitution by Jan. 1, 2028, if the person’s charge is eligible.

For example, a person’s charge might be eligible if they were a victim of human trafficking, along with other circumstances laid out in the bill.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.