103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB1908

 

Introduced 2/9/2023, by Sen. Celina Villanueva

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Warehouse Worker Protection Act. Provides that each employer shall provide to each employee, upon hire, or within 30 days after the effective date of the Act, whichever is later, a written description of each quota to which the employee is subject, including the quantified number of tasks to be performed or materials to be produced or handled, within a defined time period, and any potential adverse employment action that could result from failure to meet the quota. Provides that an employee shall not be required to meet a quota that prevents compliance with meal or rest periods or use of bathroom facilities, including reasonable travel time to and from bathroom facilities. Requires employers to post a notice of employees' rights under the Act and to comply with certain recordkeeping requirements. Establishes civil penalties for noncompliance with the Act. Provides for a private right of action. Sets forth provisions concerning definitions, employee's right to request records, enforcement, and severability. Effective 60 days after becoming law.


LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

SB1908LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1    AN ACT concerning regulation.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5Warehouse Worker Protection Act.
 
6    Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act:
7    "Aggregated data" means information that an employer has
8combined or collected together in summary or other form such
9that the data cannot be identified with any individual.
10    "Controlled group of corporations" has the same meaning as
11provided under Section 1563 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26
12U.S.C. 1563, except that 50% shall be substituted for 80%
13where 80% is specified in that definition.
14    "Defined time period" means any unit of time measurement
15equal to or less than the duration of an employee's shift and
16includes hours, minutes, and seconds and any fraction thereof.
17    "Designated employee representative" means any employee
18representative, including, but not limited to, an authorized
19employee representative that has a collective bargaining
20relationship with the employer.
21    "Director" means the Director of Labor.
22    "Employee" means a nonadministrative employee who is not
23exempt from the overtime and minimum wage requirements of the

 

 

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1federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, and who
2works at a warehouse distribution center and is subject to a
3quota.
4    "Employee work speed data" means information an employer
5collects, stores, analyzes, or interprets relating to an
6individual employee's performance of a quota, including, but
7not limited to, quantities of tasks performed, quantities of
8items or materials handled or produced, rates or speeds of
9tasks performed, measurements or metrics of employee
10performance in relation to a quota, and time categorized as
11performing tasks or not performing tasks.
12    "Employer" means a person who directly or indirectly, or
13through an agent or any other person, including through the
14services of a third-party employer, temporary services, or
15staffing agency, independent contractor, or any similar
16entity, at any time in the prior 12 months, employs or
17exercises control over the wages, hours, or working conditions
18of 100 or more employees at a single warehouse distribution
19center or 500 or more employees at one or more warehouse
20distribution centers in the State. For the purposes of this
21definition: (1) all employees employed directly or indirectly,
22or through an agent or any other person, as described in this
23definition, as well as any employee employed by a member of a
24controlled group of corporations of which the employer is a
25member, shall be counted in determining the number of
26employees employed at a single warehouse distribution center

 

 

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1or at one or more warehouse distribution centers in the State;
2and (2) all agents or other persons, as described in this
3definition, and all members of a controlled group of
4corporations of which the employer is a member, shall be
5deemed to be employers and shall be jointly and severally
6responsible for compliance with this Act.
7    "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership,
8limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited
9liability company, business trust, estate, trust, association,
10joint venture, agency, instrumentality, or any other legal or
11commercial entity, whether domestic or foreign.
12    "Quota" means a work standard that:
13        (1) an employee is assigned or required to perform at
14    a specified productivity speed or a quantified number of
15    tasks or to handle or produce a quantified amount of
16    material, within a defined time period; or
17        (2) categorizes an employee's actions between time
18    performing tasks and not performing tasks, and the
19    employee's failure to complete a task performance standard
20    or recommendation may have an adverse impact on the
21    employee's continued employment or the conditions of such
22    employment.
23    "Warehouse distribution center" means an establishment as
24defined by any of the following North American Industry
25Classification System (NAICS) codes, however such
26establishment is denominated:

 

 

SB1908- 4 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1        (1) 493 for Warehousing and Storage;
2        (2) 423 for Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods;
3        (3) 424 for Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods;
4        (4) 454110 for Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order
5    Houses; or
6        (5) 492110 for Couriers and Express Delivery Services.
 
7    Section 10. Disclosure of quotas. Each employer shall
8provide to each employee, upon hire or within 30 days after the
9effective date of this Act, whichever is later, a written
10description of each quota to which the employee is subject,
11including the quantified number of tasks to be performed or
12materials to be produced or handled, within a defined time
13period, and any potential adverse employment action that could
14result from failure to meet the quota. Each time the quota
15changes thereafter, the employer shall provide an updated
16written description of each quota to which the employee is
17subject within 2 business days of such quota change. Each time
18an employer takes an adverse employment action against an
19employee based on a quota, the employer shall provide that
20employee with a written explanation regarding the manner in
21which the employee failed to perform, including the applicable
22quota and comparison of the employee's work performance in
23relation to that quota.
24    An employer that fails to disclose a quota to an employee
25shall be subject to a civil penalty of $100 per pay period for

 

 

SB1908- 5 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1every pay period the employee worked before the employer
2disclosed the quota.
 
3    Section 15. Protection from quotas. An employee shall not
4be required to meet a quota that prevents compliance with meal
5or rest periods or use of bathroom facilities, including
6reasonable travel time to and from bathroom facilities. An
7employer shall not take adverse employment action against an
8employee for failure to meet a quota that does not allow a
9worker to comply with meal and rest periods or for failure to
10meet a quota that has not been disclosed to the employee
11pursuant to Section 10.
 
12    Section 20. Time on task. Consistent with existing law,
13paid and unpaid breaks shall not be considered productive time
14for the purpose of any quota or monitoring system unless the
15employee is required to remain on call.
 
16    Section 25. Recordkeeping.
17    (a) Each employer shall establish, maintain, and preserve
18contemporaneous, true, and accurate records of the following:
19        (1) each employee's own personal work speed data;
20        (2) the aggregated work speed data for similar
21    employees at the same establishment; and
22        (3) the written descriptions of the quota such
23    employee was provided pursuant to Section 10.

 

 

SB1908- 6 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1    Records under this subsection shall be maintained and
2preserved throughout the duration of each employee's period of
3employment and made available to the Director or his or her
4representative upon request.
5    (b) After any employee's separation from the employer,
6such records relating to the 6-month period prior to the date
7of the employee's separation from the employer shall be
8preserved for a period of time not less than 3 years after the
9date of such employee's separation and made available to the
10Director or his or her representative upon request. Nothing in
11this Section shall require an employer to keep such records if
12such employer does not use quotas as defined in this Act or
13monitor work speed data.
 
14    Section 30. Employee's right to request records.
15    (a) A current employee has the right to request a written
16description of each quota to which the employee is subject, a
17copy of the employee's own personal work speed data, and a copy
18of the prior 6 months of aggregated work speed data for similar
19employees at the same establishment.
20    (b) A former employee has the right to request, within 3
21years after the date of his or her separation from the
22employer, a written description of the quota to which he or she
23was subject as of the date of his or her separation, a copy of
24the employee's own personal work speed data for the 6 months
25prior to his or her date of separation, and a copy of

 

 

SB1908- 7 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1aggregated work speed data for similar employees at the same
2establishment for the 6 months prior to his or her date of
3separation.
4    (c) Requested records under this Section shall be provided
5at no cost to the current or former employee.
6    (d) The employer shall provide the requested records under
7this Section as soon as practicable; however, requested
8written descriptions of the quota shall be provided no later
9than 2 business days following the date of the receipt of the
10request and requested personal work speed data and aggregated
11work speed data shall be provided no later than 7 business days
12following the date of the receipt of the request.
13    (e) Nothing in this Section shall require an employer to
14use quotas as defined in this Act or monitor work speed data.
15An employer that does not monitor this data has no obligation
16to provide it.
 
17    Section 35. Unlawful retaliation.
18    (a) No person, including, but not limited to, an employer,
19his or her agent, or person acting as or on behalf of a hiring
20entity, or the officer or agent of any entity, business,
21corporation, partnership, or limited liability company, shall
22discharge or in any way retaliate, discriminate, or take
23adverse action against any person for exercising any rights
24conferred under this Act or for being perceived as exercising
25rights conferred by this Act, including, but not limited to:

 

 

SB1908- 8 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1        (1) Initiating a request for information about a quota
2    or personal work speed data pursuant to subsection (a) of
3    Section 30.
4        (2) Making a complaint related to a quota alleging any
5    violation of Section 10, 15, 20, or 30 to the Director or
6    his or her representative; any other local, state, or
7    federal governmental agency or official; or the employer.
8    (b) An employee need not explicitly refer to this Act or
9the rights enumerated in this Act to be protected from an
10adverse action. The protections of this Section shall apply to
11former employees and to employees who mistakenly but in good
12faith allege violations of this Act.
13    (c) If a person takes adverse action against an employee
14within 90 days of the employee's engaging or attempting to
15engage in activities protected by this Act, such conduct shall
16raise a rebuttable presumption that the action is an adverse
17action in violation of this Act. Such presumption may be
18rebutted by clear and convincing evidence that: (1) the action
19was taken for other permissible reasons; and (2) the engaging
20or attempting to engage in activities protected by this Act
21was not a motivating factor in the adverse action.
 
22    Section 40. Notice to employees. Every employer covered by
23this Act shall post and keep posted, in conspicuous places on
24the premises of the employer where notices to employees are
25customarily posted, a notice, to be prepared or approved by

 

 

SB1908- 9 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1the Director of Labor, regarding employees' rights under this
2Act, including what constitutes a permissible quota and
3employees' right to request quota and speed date information,
4and making a complaint to various State authorities regarding
5a violation of an employee's quota rights under this Act.
 
6    Section 45. Enforcement. The Department of Labor shall
7adopt rules implementing this Act. The Director shall be
8authorized to enforce this Act and to assess civil penalties
9in a manner consistent with State law.
 
10    Section 50. Workplace inspections. If a particular work
11site or employer is found to have an annual employee injury
12rate of at least 1.5 times as high as the warehousing
13industry's average annual injury rate as published by the
14Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent fatal and non-fatal
15occupational injuries and illnesses data, the Director or his
16or her representative shall conduct an investigation of
17violations pursuant to this Act.
 
18    Section 55. Private right of action. A current or former
19employee or his or her representative may bring an action for
20injunctive relief to obtain compliance with this Act and may,
21upon prevailing in the action, recover costs and reasonable
22attorney's fees in such action. In any action involving a
23quota that prevented the compliance with applicable

 

 

SB1908- 10 -LRB103 27143 RPS 53512 b

1regulations on workplace safety and health or meal or rest
2break requirements, the injunctive relief shall be limited to
3suspension of the quota and restitution and injunctive relief
4to address any retaliation or other adverse action taken by
5the employer in relation to the complaint or its enforcement.
6In any action involving a retaliation in violation of this
7Act, in addition to the relief authorized in this Section, a
8prevailing current or former employee or his or her
9representative shall be awarded damages equal to the greater
10of $10,000 or 3 times the actual damages, including, but not
11limited to, unpaid wages and benefits.
 
12    Section 60. Attorney General; powers. The Attorney
13General, either upon his or her own complaint or the complaint
14of any person acting for themselves or the general public, has
15the authority to prosecute actions, either civil or criminal,
16for violations of this Act, or to enforce the provisions
17thereof independently and without specific direction of the
18Director.
 
19    Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are
20severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.
 
21    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect 60 days
22after becoming law.