Update on HB2778, The COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Act

    We finally have resolution on House Bill 2778….sort of. Having passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly, the COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill sat waiting to be signed by Governor Pritzker. The Governor had been fairly vocal about his opposition to the bill as it was written, specifically that it applied to ALL education workers regardless of their vaccination status. Pritzker has been vocal in his view that vaccination is the clearest path to move past the COVID-19 pandemic and wanted a bill that would incentivize those education workers who remain unvaccinated to get vaccinated.

  Yesterday, Governor Pritzker vetoed HB2778 but for the past week had been working with The IEA, The Illinois Federation of Teachers and other stakeholders to develop a compromise bill, The COVID-19 Sick Leave Initiative for Vaccinated School Staff. This new bill contains the same protections that appeared in the previous version, but only for vaccinated employees. You can read the press release from the Governors office here,

 The bill will take effect once it has passed both houses and is signed by the Governor. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available.