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August 18, 2023
On August 4, 2023, Illinois expanded its Blood Donation Act to include leave for organ donation, and expanded its Family Bereavement Leave Act to provide additional time for the loss of a child due to suicide or homicide. Both of the expanded laws will become effective on January 1, 2024.
Note: Illinois also recently amended its Victims’ Economic Security and Safety Act (see our article on the expansion of VESSA) to provide leave to employees who are grieving a family member’s death from a violent crime, which became effective on July 28, 2023.
Employee Blood and Organ Donation Leave Act
Illinois expanded its existing Blood Donation Act to include organ donation. Previously, Illinois workers (defined as employees – employed for six months or more – of local government, boards of election commissioners, or private employers with 51 or more employees) were eligible to take one hour of paid leave every 56 days to donate blood.
The amended Act entitles workers to take 10 days of paid leave in any 12-month period to donate an organ. The law defines an organ as “any biological tissue of the human body that may be donated, by a living donor, including, but not limited to, the kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, intestine, bone, and skin or any subpart thereof.”
Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act
Illinois also expanded upon its existing Family Bereavement Leave Act (FBLA) to create the Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act (CEBLA).
The CEBLA requires employers with at least 50 employees to provide employees who have lost a child due to suicide or homicide with six weeks (for employers of 50 and 249 employees) or 12 weeks (for employers of 250 or more employees) of unpaid, job-protected leave. Employees may take the leave on a continuous basis, or on an intermittent basis in increments of at least four hours, but the leave must be taken within one year of the employee notifying their employer of the loss.
Employees who take leave under the CEBLA may not also take leave under the Family Bereavement Leave Act, which requires employers to provide unpaid bereavement leave for the loss of a child under any circumstances.
Employer Takeaways
Update your leave policies and train your HR professionals and managers on the new leave entitlements.
*Special thanks to Brooke Palma, our Office Administrator, for her contributions to this article.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Illinois, Pennsylvania, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
