Pritzker vetoes bill that would have required warehouse workers to know
their quotas
[March 25, 2025]
By Ben Szalinski
SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker issued a rare veto Friday of a bill that
would require warehouse workers in Illinois to know quotas they must
meet at their jobs.
While signing 16 other bills into law that the General Assembly passed
during the January “lame duck” session, Pritzker rejected House Bill
2547.Lawmakers passed the measure in hopes of providing workers at
Illinois warehouse more transparency about requirements of their job.
“While I share the goal of protecting warehouse workers from dangerous
and unfair working conditions, this bill was passed hastily at the end
of the Lame Duck session without engagement with relevant state agencies
or my office and presents both legal and operational issues that
undermine its effect,” Pritzker said in a letter to lawmakers.
The bill would have required that warehouse employees be given a written
description of any quota they will be assessed on, including the number
of tasks they must perform and the time tasks should be completed in.
The bill would prohibit employers from punishing workers for failing to
meet quotas because they took bathroom, meal or rest breaks.
Employees would be allowed to sue for violations.
Pritzker wrote that the bill is too vague on exactly what workers would
be covered under the law. Processes for enforcing the policy are also
unclear, even though the bill called for civil penalties against
employers that violate the proposed law. The bill defined employees as
people who work at warehouses and are subject to quotas requiring
specific productivity speeds or a number of tasks that must be performed
before an employee faces adverse action for failing to meet performance
standards.
Delivery drivers would not be covered under the bill.
“In this tight budget year and in the face of unpredictable enforcement
and funding from the federal government, it is critical that advocates,
legislators and my administration work together to ensure any new labor
laws are straightforward to implement and do not create a risk of legal
challenges,” Pritzker wrote.
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Gov. JB Pritzker speaks at a Rockford stop on his "Standing Up for
Illinois” tour on Friday, March 21, 2025. (Capitol News Illinois
photo by Andrew Adams)
Pritzker has rarely issued vetoes since he became governor in 2019 and
has largely found himself on the same page with the Democratic
supermajority in the legislature.
Lawmakers can override Pritzker’s veto. The bill passed the House with
bipartisan support from 79 lawmakers, meaning it could have enough
support to break the 71-vote threshold needed to override a veto. The
path to override in the Senate is unclear, however. Bills need 36 votes
to override a veto in the Senate, but this bill received 35 votes when
it passed in January.
Separately from the bill, Pritzker wrote that he is directing the
Illinois Department of Labor to work with stakeholders on creating a
plan to address concerns about quotas and worker safety at warehouses.
He wrote he is also asking the department to establish a “field
enforcement team that can respond quickly and effectively to dangerous
conditions, lack of meal and rest breaks, and other concerns in
warehouses.”
The bill passed with support from several Illinois labor unions.
Pasquale Gianni of the Teamsters Joint Council 25 union in Chicago told
lawmakers in January his union has heard about non-unionized employees
who are afraid the time it would take to commute to and from the
bathroom would prevent them from hitting their quota, which could result
in them losing their job.
Business groups opposed the bill over similar concerns Pritzker had that
definitions in the bill were too broad.
Jade Aubrey contributed.
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