103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2023 and 2024
SB0213

 

Introduced 1/31/2023, by Sen. Adriane Johnson

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
820 ILCS 135/1  from Ch. 21, par. 101

    Amends the Burial Rights Act. Provides that contracts between cemetery authorities and cemetery worker's associations prohibiting in any manner dedications of monuments or headstones, family visitations, or visitations to veterans memorials on Sundays or legal holidays shall be deemed to be void as against public policy and wholly unenforceable. Makes conforming changes.


LRB103 25918 SPS 52269 b

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

SB0213LRB103 25918 SPS 52269 b

1    AN ACT concerning employment.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 5. The Burial Rights Act is amended by changing
5Section 1 as follows:
 
6    (820 ILCS 135/1)  (from Ch. 21, par. 101)
7    Sec. 1. (a) Every contract, agreement or understanding
8between a cemetery authority and a cemetery workers'
9association which totally prohibits burials of human remains
10or prohibits in any manner dedications of monuments or
11headstones, family visitations, or visitations to veterans
12memorials on Sundays or legal holidays shall be deemed to be
13void as against public policy and wholly unenforceable.
14    (b) Nothing in this Section shall prohibit a cemetery
15authority and a cemetery workers' association from entering
16into a contract, agreement or understanding which limits
17Sunday or holiday burials of human remains to decedents who
18were members of religious sects whose tenets or beliefs
19require burials within a specified period of time and whose
20deaths occurred at such times as to necessitate Sunday or
21holiday burials. Such contract, agreement or understanding may
22provide that a funeral director notify the cemetery authority
23within a reasonable time when a Sunday or holiday burial or

 

 

SB0213- 2 -LRB103 25918 SPS 52269 b

1dedication of a monument or headstone is necessitated by
2reason of the decedent's religious tenets or beliefs.
3    (c) It shall be unlawful for any person to restrain,
4prohibit or interfere with the burial of a decedent whose time
5of death and religious tenets or beliefs necessitate burial on
6a Sunday or legal holiday or prohibit in any manner
7dedications of monuments or headstones, family visitations, or
8visitations to veterans memorials on a Sunday or legal
9holiday.
10    (d) A violation of this Section is a Class A misdemeanor.
11    (e) For the purposes of this Act, "cemetery authority"
12shall have the meaning ascribed to it in Section 2 of the
13Cemetery Care Act or the Cemetery Oversight Act, whichever is
14applicable; and "cemetery workers' association" means an
15organization of workers who are employed by cemetery
16authorities to perform the task of burying human remains or
17transporting remains to cemeteries or other places of
18interment, and who join together for collective bargaining
19purposes or to negotiate terms and conditions of employment.
20(Source: P.A. 96-863, eff. 3-1-10.)