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90_HB1785eng
New Act
20 ILCS 415/8b.7-1 new
30 ILCS 505/9.01-1 new
Creates the Welfare to Work Act which places qualified
welfare recipients in State jobs or jobs contracted out by
the State. Provides that State agencies shall provide the
Department of Public Aid, or the Department of Human Services
as its successor agency, a job announcement simultaneously
with posting its positions or putting a position out for hire
by contract, except for those positions subject to recall by
laid-off employees, or those otherwise exempt. The
Department shall review positions, make eligibility
determinations, recruit and screen potential employees, and
refer aid recipients to apply for positions listed in job
announcements. Employers shall make all employment
decisions based on merit, with not less than 5% of the hours
worked on a State contract meeting certain specifications
being worked by qualified aid recipients, with some
exceptions. Employment terms and conditions shall be the
same as for any other member of the employer's workforce
doing the same or similar work. Provides for reports
regarding hiring practices under this Act to be submitted to
the General Assembly, the Department of Labor, and the
Department of Public Aid, or the Department of Human Services
as successor agency to the Department of Public Aid. Amends
the Personnel Code and the Illinois Purchasing Act to make
changes in conformance with this Act. Effective immediately.
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1 AN ACT concerning employment.
2 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3 represented in the General Assembly:
4 Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
5 Welfare to Work Act.
6 Section 5. Legislative findings; purpose. The General
7 Assembly hereby finds that:
8 (a) Poverty and welfare dependence are widespread
9 throughout the State of Illinois. Almost 1,500,000 of its
10 citizens are dependent on the State's public assistance
11 programs for their most basic needs; and over 200,000
12 families, including 500,000 children, rely on cash assistance
13 from the State for all or part of their subsistence needs.
14 (b) Poverty and unemployment diminish individual
15 self-esteem, can undermine family stability, and affect
16 family formation, community security and cohesion.
17 (c) Under the new federal welfare law, the Personal
18 Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of
19 1996, cash assistance benefits will be limited to 60 months,
20 and over 100,000 adult heads of households in the Illinois
21 welfare caseload must be employed by the year 2002 or they
22 and their children will be destitute.
23 (d) Voluntary efforts by the private sector to employ
24 welfare recipients are laudable and are to be commended, but
25 the State must also take direct responsibility to ensure that
26 welfare recipients are hired in jobs that will allow them to
27 leave the welfare rolls altogether.
28 (e) The State spends billions of dollars each year to
29 improve its economy and infrastructure, and to deliver
30 services to the people of the State, all of which also serves
31 to provide jobs for its citizens.
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1 (f) The State can accomplish the objectives of relieving
2 welfare dependency and ensuring economic self-sufficiency as
3 well as the objectives related to carrying out necessary
4 governmental operations at the same time, and with
5 significant savings in State outlays in cash assistance and
6 supportive service dollars.
7 (g) Poverty and welfare dependency can be alleviated by
8 targeting some of the resources of the State and making jobs
9 available to the welfare poor, specifically by bringing
10 qualified poor persons into the State workforce and into the
11 workforces that are generated through State contracts,
12 without causing the displacement of existing workers.
13 (h) Some State jobs that are newly created or that are
14 open through attrition and some jobs created under State
15 contracts, can be filled by qualified welfare recipients
16 without compromising the integrity of the hiring process,
17 contractor profits, collective bargaining agreements, timely
18 completion of projects, or the health and safety of Illinois
19 workers.
20 (i) To the extent that these jobs are filled by welfare
21 recipients, the State accomplishes 4 important governmental
22 objectives simultaneously: (1) the alleviation of welfare
23 dependency, ensuring of economic self-sufficiency, and
24 lifting of individuals and families out of poverty, (2) the
25 stabilization of families and communities that are hardest
26 hit by persistent poverty and unemployment, (3) the
27 accomplishment of the essential work of the State which must
28 be performed through these jobs, and (4) the reduction of
29 State outlays for cash assistance and services for the poor.
30 (j) The State's immediate, direct and significant
31 interest in relieving welfare dependency and the employment
32 of the poor in jobs generated through the expenditure of
33 State funds constitutes the basis of this Act.
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1 Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
2 "Aid recipient" means:
3 (a) a person financially eligible to receive cash
4 assistance under the Aid to Families with Dependent
5 Children program (or any successor program, including
6 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the Transitional
7 Assistance program, or any other cash assistance program
8 administered by the Department of Public Aid (or its
9 successor, the Department of Human Services) financed in
10 whole or in part by the State;
11 (b) a person financially eligible for cash
12 assistance under Article VI of the Public Aid Code,
13 whether receiving assistance or not; an Earnfare
14 participant; and an unemployed person or employed person
15 who is earning less than the poverty level in wages and
16 who is also married to the parent of a child receiving
17 cash assistance or the legally adjudicated father of a
18 child receiving cash assistance; and
19 (c) a person who, within the previous 60 months, has
20 been found eligible and placed for training or employment
21 under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
22 Development's Section 3 program, or under any other
23 local, state or federal government program that creates
24 training or hiring preferences or priorities for low
25 income persons, and who was, at the time of entry into
26 such program an "aid recipient" as defined under
27 paragraph (a) or (b) of this definition.
28 "Contracts for personal services" has the same meaning as
29 under Section 14 of the State Finance Act.
30 "Covered contract" means a contract, aid or grant between
31 the State and other entity or entities, whether private,
32 public or not-for-profit, regardless of the purpose of the
33 contract, aid or grant, and means contracts, aid and grants
34 between those entities and their contractors and
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1 subcontractors, but only if the contract or grant is payable
2 by the State in an amount in excess of $250,000 or a
3 subcontract is for an amount in excess of $100,000.
4 Recipients of contracts, aid and grants may not divide
5 contracts or spread out the work to be undertaken for
6 purposes of avoiding having a covered contract.
7 "Covered employee" means a person who is found eligible
8 for employment and hired under this Act.
9 "Covered employer" means an employer in receipt of a
10 "covered contract" payment and thus subject to the
11 requirements of this Act with respect to a "covered
12 contract".
13 "Covered position" means a State-funded position of
14 employment, whether civil service or under contract for
15 personal services, that the Department of Public Aid (or its
16 successor, the Department of Human Services) has not found
17 exempt under Section 25 of this Act.
18 "Qualified aid recipient" means an "aid recipient" who
19 meets each of the qualifications, including education,
20 training, and experience, if any, that have been established
21 by the employer for the position.
22 "State agencies" means all State departments (whether
23 code or otherwise), boards, commissions, authorities,
24 councils, officers, bureaus, units, colleges and
25 universities, and executive, legislative and judicial
26 agencies.
27 Section 15. Disclosure of potential covered positions.
28 Simultaneously with posting its positions or putting a
29 position out for hire by contract, each State agency shall
30 provide the Department of Public Aid (or its successor, the
31 Department of Human Services) with a copy of a job
32 announcement specifying the job description and
33 qualifications of each position that is newly created, is
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1 open, or is otherwise posted for hire or for hire under
2 contract. This requirement does not apply when the position
3 is one that is subject to recall by a laid-off employee or
4 employees.
5 Section 20. Duties of the Department of Public Aid (or
6 its successor agency, the Department of Human Services). The
7 Department shall administer that portion of this Act related
8 to reviewing positions, eligibility determinations,
9 recruitment, screening, and referral of aid recipients to
10 covered positions and positions under covered contracts.
11 Section 25. Review of Positions.
12 (a) The Department shall review each position
13 announcement provided to it by State agencies to determine if
14 there currently are any potentially qualified aid recipients
15 that could be referred to apply for the position.
16 (b) If the Department determines there are no or too few
17 potentially qualified aid recipients to identify readily for
18 referral for the position, the Department shall provide the
19 State agency with a notice exempting that position from the
20 provisions of this Act. The Department may permanently or
21 temporarily exempt a position.
22 (c) If the position is permanently exempted, the State
23 agency need not provide the Department with position
24 announcements for that position in the future. However, the
25 Department may, at any time, revoke its exemption of any
26 position, and from the point of that revocation forward, the
27 State agency again shall provide the Department with
28 announcements of that position.
29 (d) If the position is temporarily exempted, the
30 provisions of this Act do not apply to the position, but the
31 State agency must provide announcements to the Department of
32 future openings of that position.
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1 (e) If the position is not determined by the Department
2 to be exempted, it is a covered position under this Act.
3 Section 30. Eligibility Determinations. Upon the
4 request of a person who believes that he or she is an aid
5 recipient within the meaning of this Act or the request of a
6 State agency or covered employer on behalf of such a person,
7 the Department shall make the determination of whether the
8 person is an aid recipient within the meaning of this Act and
9 shall provide the necessary written proof of aid recipient
10 status to the aid recipient and to any other person,
11 including the party making request on behalf of the aid
12 recipient, if the aid recipient authorizes it in writing.
13 Section 35. Recruitment, screening and referrals to
14 training and for jobs under this Act.
15 (a) In order to facilitate a steady stream of
16 potentially qualified aid recipients into positions available
17 under this Act, the Department shall:
18 (1) work with public, private, and not-for-profit
19 job training programs and certified joint apprenticeship
20 training programs to develop and make use of training
21 programs to facilitate channeling aid recipients into
22 such training programs that correspond with, and will
23 qualify them for, open covered positions and positions
24 under covered contracts;
25 (2) coordinate the recruitment, screening, and
26 referrals for placement of aid recipients in education
27 and training programs that correspond with the job
28 qualifications and requirements of covered positions and
29 positions under covered contracts;
30 (3) coordinate the recruitment, screening, and
31 referrals of potentially qualified aid recipients to
32 employers for open covered positions and positions under
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1 covered contracts;
2 (b) The Department shall maintain an equal balance in
3 its referrals of potentially qualified aid recipients to
4 training programs, to employers for covered positions, and to
5 positions under covered contracts as between those who
6 qualify under paragraph (a) of the definition of "aid
7 recipient" in Section 10 of this Act (or who originally
8 qualified under paragraph (a) but who are now qualified under
9 paragraph (c) of that definition), and those who qualify
10 under paragraph (b) of the definition of "aid recipient" (or
11 who originally qualified under paragraph (b) but who are now
12 qualified under paragraph (c)).
13 (c) Support services, including transportation
14 assistance, uniforms, tools, and supplies, that are otherwise
15 provided to "aid recipients" under paragraph (a) of the
16 definition of "aid recipient" shall be provided, in the same
17 manner and measure, to those "aid recipients" under paragraph
18 (b) of the definition of "aid recipient" in connection with
19 employment related services provided by the Department under
20 this Act.
21 (d) The duties of the Department specified in this
22 Section may be carried out, in whole or in part, under
23 contracts entered into by the Department with units of local
24 government or by not-for-profit community based
25 organizations.
26 Section 40. Hiring without referrals authorized. Any
27 aid recipient who believes he or she is a qualified aid
28 recipient may apply, without a referral by the Department,
29 for jobs under this Act. For any covered position, whether
30 previously determined by the Department to be a covered
31 position or not, if the State agency finds the applicant to
32 be a qualified aid recipient, the applicant shall be provided
33 the preference this Act affords. For any position under a
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1 covered contract, the employer may count, under the
2 requirements imposed under this Act, any aid recipient hired,
3 whether referred by the Department or not.
4 Section 45. Hiring requirements relative to covered
5 positions.
6 (a) Verification that an applicant for a position is an
7 aid recipient shall be made by the State agency by copying
8 for its records the applicant's public aid card or such other
9 proof of aid recipient status as has been provided to the aid
10 recipient or employer by the Department.
11 (b) The State agency with the open position shall make
12 the determination of whether an aid recipient who applies
13 for the position is qualified for hire.
14 (c) The State agency shall provide qualified aid
15 recipients with a hiring preference in accordance with the
16 requirements for civil service positions under Section 8b.7-1
17 of the Personnel Code, and for personal service contract
18 positions, under Section 9.01-1 of the Illinois Purchasing
19 Act.
20 (d) The minimum qualifications for hire, wages, days per
21 week, hours per day, shifts of employment, and terms and
22 conditions of employment of a qualified aid recipient who is
23 hired under this Act shall be the same as for other members
24 of the employer's workforce doing the same or similar work
25 and shall be subject to the same State and federal laws.
26 (e) Nothing in this Act prevents a State agency from
27 counting a person hired under this Act, who is also a
28 protected female or minority, toward that employer's
29 affirmative action obligations that may otherwise be imposed.
30 (f) Nothing in this Act diminishes the full authority
31 and prerogative of State agencies to determine independently
32 an aid recipient's qualifications and to make independently
33 all hiring decisions, based on merit, under this Act.
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1 Section 50. Contract requirements. Each covered
2 contract shall contain provisions incorporating all of the
3 following requirements:
4 (a) Not less than 5% of the hours worked under positions
5 that are paid under a covered contract shall be worked by
6 qualified aid recipients.
7 (b) In order to facilitate compliance with this Act, a
8 covered employer may notify the Department of Public Aid (or
9 its successor agency, the Department of Human Services) of
10 jobs that are opening under the covered contract for which
11 aid recipients may be qualified in order to receive referrals
12 of aid recipients by the Department.
13 (c) The covered employer shall verify that an applicant
14 for a position is an aid recipient, and shall maintain a
15 record of the aid recipient's status by copying for its
16 records the applicant's public aid card or such other proof
17 of aid recipient status as has been provided to the recipient
18 or employer by the Department of Public Aid (or its successor
19 agency, the Department of Human Services).
20 (d) The covered employer shall make the determination of
21 whether an aid recipient who applies for the position is a
22 qualified aid recipient. Nothing in this Act implies a
23 diminution of the full authority and prerogative of covered
24 employers to determine independently an aid recipient's
25 qualifications and to make independently all hiring decisions
26 under this Act. No State agency may require an employer to
27 hire an aid recipient who is not qualified for the position
28 for which the aid recipient is applying.
29 (e) The number of covered employees in a workforce shall
30 be calculated as follows: the number of total hours worked
31 under the contract are the "worker hours". The number of
32 hours that covered employees have worked under the contract
33 are the "covered employee hours". The "covered employee
34 hours" shall be divided by the "worker hours" and the product
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1 shall be no less than 0.05. If the covered contract
2 includes positions that are otherwise reported to the State
3 and federal government only by daily or weekly full time
4 equivalency, then those positions shall be calculated by
5 dividing the full-time equivalent of the covered employees in
6 those positions by the total full-time equivalent for those
7 positions. An employer may sponsor a covered worker in an
8 apprenticeship training program or other education or
9 training program, in which case the employer may count the
10 number of hours or days in off-site training or classroom
11 instruction toward the requirements of this Section.
12 (f) A covered employer who is unable to hire at least 5%
13 of its workforce from qualified aid recipients under a
14 covered contract shall certify to the Department of Labor and
15 the Department of Public Aid (or its successor agency, the
16 Department of Human Services) the circumstances which made
17 meeting the requirements of this Act impossible. Permitted
18 circumstances may include the high percentage of
19 professional, high skilled, or journey level workers needed
20 under the contract, the need to recall out of work employees
21 who are receiving unemployment compensation through the
22 covered employer, or other circumstances outside of the
23 control of the covered employer. If a covered employer has
24 not met the percentage hire requirements under this Act, and
25 did not notify the Department of jobs that have become
26 available under its covered contract, and jobs existed under
27 that contract for potentially qualified aid recipients, the
28 covered employer shall be deemed to have been able to hire
29 the requisite percentage of aid recipients under this Act,
30 and failed to do so.
31 (g) At the request of the covered employer to the
32 Department of Public Aid (or its successor agency, the
33 Department of Human Services), the requirements of hiring
34 covered employees under this Section may be waived, in
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1 advance, by the Department, in whole or in part, in
2 accordance with rules established by the Department, if
3 enough qualified aid recipients are not referred or cannot be
4 hired due to circumstances set forth in subsection (5). To
5 receive this waiver, the covered employer must request the
6 waiver before hiring under the covered contract, and must
7 include in its request for the waiver, job descriptions for
8 each of the positions that are subject to hire under the
9 covered contract, and the number of people estimated to be
10 hired for each such job.
11 (h) The minimum qualifications for hire, and the wages,
12 days per week, hours per day, shifts of employment, and terms
13 and conditions of employment, of a covered employee shall be
14 the same as for other members of the employer's workforce
15 doing the same or similar work and shall be subject to the
16 same State and federal laws.
17 (i) Covered employees shall abide by all health and
18 safety rules and laws imposed on a covered employer's
19 workforce.
20 (j) This Act does not require covered employers to
21 provide any additional or separate training or apprenticeship
22 programs for aid recipients that the employer would not
23 otherwise provide to other workers in the same or similar
24 jobs at the same or similar level of experience.
25 (k) Nothing in this Act prevents a covered employer from
26 counting a covered employee, who is also a protected female
27 or minority, toward the employer's affirmative action
28 obligations that may otherwise be imposed.
29 Section 55. Duties of the Department of Labor. The
30 Department of Labor shall ensure that covered employers
31 comply with the provisions of this Act and shall work with
32 the Department of Public Aid (or its successor agency, the
33 Department of Human Services) and the Social Services
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1 Advisory Council in promulgating rules for implementation and
2 governance and to effectuate the purposes of this Act,
3 including contractor compliance. In promulgating compliance
4 rules, the Illinois Department of Labor shall create
5 provisions that assure that there will be good faith attempts
6 at negotiation and conciliation, and the affording of the
7 protections of due process of law before any sanctions
8 against a contractor are imposed.
9 Section 60. Compliance and Reporting.
10 (a) The Department of Public Aid (or its successor
11 agency, the Department of Human Services), the Department of
12 Labor, and the General Assembly are jointly empowered to
13 ensure and monitor covered employer and State agency
14 compliance with the provisions of this Act.
15 (b) Each State agency shall annually prepare a report to
16 the Department of Public Aid (or its successor agency, the
17 Department of Human Services) and the General Assembly
18 demonstrating its hiring under this Act. The report shall be
19 submitted to the Department and the Minority and Majority
20 Leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate no
21 later than January 31 of each year. The report shall set
22 forth, for the previous calendar year, the total number of
23 positions filled by the State agency, the number of positions
24 not exempted and thus found to be covered positions by the
25 Department, and the number of positions filled by aid
26 recipients.
27 (c) The Department of Public Aid (or its successor
28 agency, the Department of Human Services) shall collate the
29 reports and shall submit a report to the General Assembly no
30 later than the first day of March of each year, with the
31 totals, broken down by State agency in each category, and the
32 grand totals for the State in each of the three categories.
33 (d) Both the original reports and the summary Department
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1 report shall be subject to public inspection, review and
2 copying.
3 (e) Each covered contractor shall annually prepare a
4 single duplicated report that documents its hiring practices
5 under this Act that shall be submitted both to the Department
6 of Labor and the Department of Public Aid (or its successor
7 agency, the Department of Human Services). The report shall
8 be submitted no later than January 31 of each year. The
9 report shall set forth, for the previous calendar year, for
10 each covered contract, the calculations of total worker hours
11 and covered employee hours and the percentage of covered
12 employee hours, and such other data and information as may be
13 required by rule.
14 (f) The Department of Labor shall collate the contractor
15 reports and shall submit a report to the Minority and
16 Majority Leaders of both chambers of the General Assembly no
17 later than the first day of March of each year, with the
18 total worker hours, the total covered employee hours, and the
19 percentage of hours of work by covered employees. The
20 Department of Public Aid shall set forth the number of aid
21 recipients who have closed their aid cases or had their aid
22 reduced as a result of positions obtained under this Act, and
23 shall set forth such other data and cost savings as it deems
24 appropriate.
25 (g) The Department's summary reports shall be subject to
26 public inspection, review and copying.
27 Section 905. The Personnel Code is amended by adding
28 Section 8b.7-1 as follows:
29 (20 ILCS 415/8b.7-1 new)
30 Sec. 8b.7-1. Qualified aid recipient preference. For the
31 granting of preferences to "qualified aid recipients" within
32 the meaning of the Welfare to Work Act. The preference shall
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1 be given only after the application and provision of
2 veterans' preferences under Section 8b.7, unless the
3 applicant is subject to preferences under both veterans and
4 qualified aid recipient designations, in which case those
5 persons shall take precedence. When qualified aid recipients
6 are on eligible lists on the basis of category rankings such
7 as superior, excellent, well-qualified, and qualified, they
8 shall be preferred over non-veterans who are not qualified
9 aid recipients in the same category. Notwithstanding Section
10 8b.5, when a list is prepared by numerical rankings, and a
11 qualified aid recipient is one of the top 3 candidates on the
12 basis of the numerical ranking, the qualified aid recipient
13 shall be appointed, unless one or two of the other candidates
14 is a qualified veteran.
15 Section 910. The Illinois Purchasing Act is amended by
16 adding Section 9.01-1 as follows:
17 (30 ILCS 505/9.01-1 new)
18 Sec. 9.01-1. Contracts for personal services; qualified
19 aid recipients. All contracts for personal services, as
20 defined under Section 14 of the State Finance Act, shall be
21 subject to the preference of "qualified aid recipients"
22 within the meaning of the Welfare to Work Act, over others
23 who are similarly qualified.
24 Section 999. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
25 becoming law.