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| 1 | AN ACT concerning regulation.
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| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| 3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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| 4 | Section 5. The Volunteer Emergency Worker Job Protection | ||||||
| 5 | Act is amended by changing Section 5 as follows: | ||||||
| 6 | (50 ILCS 748/5)
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| 7 | Sec. 5. Volunteer emergency worker; when termination of | ||||||
| 8 | employment prohibited.
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| 9 | (a) No public or private employer may terminate an employee | ||||||
| 10 | who is a
volunteer
emergency worker because the employee, when | ||||||
| 11 | acting as a volunteer emergency worker, is
absent from or late | ||||||
| 12 | to his or her employment in order to respond to an
emergency | ||||||
| 13 | prior to the time the employee is to report to his or her place | ||||||
| 14 | of
employment.
A public or private employer shall not | ||||||
| 15 | discipline an employee who is a volunteer emergency worker if | ||||||
| 16 | the employee, in the scope of acting as a volunteer emergency | ||||||
| 17 | worker, responds to an emergency phone call or text message | ||||||
| 18 | during work hours that requests the person's volunteer | ||||||
| 19 | emergency services unless the person is employed by a public or | ||||||
| 20 | private vehicle service provider and is in the course of | ||||||
| 21 | performing services as Emergency Medical Services personnel as | ||||||
| 22 | defined in Section 3.5 of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) | ||||||
| 23 | Systems Act.
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| 1 | (b) An employer may charge, against the employee's regular | ||||||
| 2 | pay, any time
that
an
employee who is a
volunteer emergency | ||||||
| 3 | worker loses from employment because of the employee's
response | ||||||
| 4 | to an emergency in the course of performing his or her duties | ||||||
| 5 | as a
volunteer emergency worker.
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| 6 | (c) In the case of an employee who is a
volunteer emergency | ||||||
| 7 | worker and who loses time
from his or her employment in order | ||||||
| 8 | to respond to an emergency in the course of
performing his or | ||||||
| 9 | her duties as a volunteer emergency worker, the
employer has | ||||||
| 10 | the right to request the employee to provide the
employer with | ||||||
| 11 | a written statement from the supervisor or acting supervisor of
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| 12 | the
volunteer fire department or governmental entity that the | ||||||
| 13 | volunteer emergency worker serves stating that the employee | ||||||
| 14 | responded to an emergency
and stating the time and date of the | ||||||
| 15 | emergency.
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| 16 | (d) An employee who is a
volunteer emergency worker and who | ||||||
| 17 | may be absent from or late to his or her
employment in
order to | ||||||
| 18 | respond to an emergency in the course of performing his or her | ||||||
| 19 | duties
as a volunteer emergency worker must make a reasonable | ||||||
| 20 | effort to notify his
or
her employer that he or she may be | ||||||
| 21 | absent or late.
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| 22 | (Source: P.A. 93-1027, eff. 8-25-04; 94-599, eff. 1-1-06.)
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