As you may recall, the Illinois Education Association worked very hard during the last legislative session to pass House Bill 2778, the COVID School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill. The bill established statewide standards for unlimited COVID-19 administrative days for education employees who have to quarantine because of illness, exposure, symptoms or to care for a quarantined child. It also provided paycheck protection for non-instructional employees. The bill passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support and was sent to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.
The governor had until Jan. 28 to either sign or veto the bill. IEA was informed a little more than a week ago that the governor intended to veto the bill because it would have applied to all education employees, regardless of their vaccination status. The governor is a strong proponent of vaccines as one of the clearest paths to move Illinois past the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped that these benefits could work as an incentive to the unvaccinated to get vaccinated.
The IEA’s executive committee gave permission to IEA to work with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the governor’s office and other stakeholders to come up with a compromise. Today, the governor is announcing that he is vetoing HB2778. He is also announcing a new piece of legislation that provides all of the same items that the COVID School employee Benefit and Wage Protection Bill provided, but only to vaccinated education employees in PreK-12 schools and in higher education.
For more information, here is a copy of the press release from the governor’s office and a Frequently Asked Questions document. If you have further questions or concerns, you can reach out to IEA Connect at [email protected], 1-844-432-1800 or through the Let’s Chat function on the IEA website.