Banking and Business Monthly – August 2022

Effective January 1, 2023, Illinois has amended its Child Bereavement Leave Act to become the Family Bereavement Leave Act (“Act”), while also expanding the unpaid bereavement leave available to eligible Illinois employees.

The Act tracks the definition of eligible employees under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). Under the FMLA, an eligible employee is one that has worked for a covered employer for at least 12 months, has worked at least 1,250 hours within the last 12 months, and works at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. 

Bereavement leave under the Act before its amendment was limited to the loss of a child. Under the Act, as amended, Illinois employers must provide unpaid leave to eligible employees who experience the death of any “covered family member”, which is defined as “an employee’s child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent.” Employees may also take unpaid leave for a miscarriage, an unsuccessful reproduction procedure, a failed adoption match or an adoption that is not finalized because it is contested by another party, a failed surrogacy agreement, a diagnosis that negatively impacts pregnancy or fertility, or a stillbirth.

Eligible employees are entitled to a maximum of two weeks (10 workdays) of unpaid leave following one of the above covered events. If there is the death of more than one covered family member in a 12-month period, the employee is entitled to take up to six weeks of bereavement leave during the 12-month period.

The Act requires an employee to provide 48 hours’ notice to the employer of the employee’s intent to take bereavement leave unless providing notice is not reasonable and practicable. The employee must complete leave within 60 days after the date the employee receives notice of the death or the occurrence of another covered event. The employer may, but does not have to, require reasonable documentation from the employee demonstrating the reason for the requested leave, such as a death certificate, obituary, or a form to be provided by the Illinois Department of Labor and completed by the applicable health care practitioner with respect to other covered events. When leave is requested for a pregnancy or adoption-related covered event, the employer may not require the employee to identify which category the leave belongs to as a condition of taking leave.

Employers with Illinois employees should review and update their policies and procedures for bereavement leave to conform to the Act by January 1, 2023. Employers should also review their other benefit plan documents to ensure bereavement leave is treated consistently with the Act. Lavelle Law’s employment law attorneys are here to assist in updating employee handbooks and to verify that your policies and procedures conform to the Act.

For further inquiries or questions, please contact me at smigala@lavellelaw.com or at (847) 705-7555.