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Illinois officially has made it easier for certain workers who contract COVID-19 to claim it is an occupational disease for purposes of collecting workers’ compensation. On June 5, 2020, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law House Bill 2455, which amends the Illinois Workers’ Occupational Diseases Act (820 ILCS 310/et seq.) with respect to such claims.

In April 2020, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission passed an emergency rule creating this same rebuttable presumption, but quickly withdrew the rule after it was challenged in court.

This amendment (codified as Public Act 0633) creates a rebuttable presumption that the exposure to and contraction of COVID-19 by a “COVID-19 first responder or front-line worker” arises out of and in the course of the employee’s employment, and is causally connected to the hazards or exposures of the employee’s employment.
Continue Reading It’s official: Illinois law presumes COVID-19 is a workplace injury for essential workers

The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission has withdrawn an emergency rule it passed just weeks ago that would have made it easier for essential workers to claim they became sick with COVID-19 while on the job.

The withdrawal comes in the face of a Sangamon County Circuit Court decision granting an emergency request by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association to block the new rule. The court found that in passing the emergency rule, which created a rebuttable presumption that essential workers who become sick with COVID-19 contracted it in the course of their employment, the Commission exceeded its rulemaking authority under the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act and the Illinois Workers Compensation Act. Under these laws, the Commission only has the authority to create procedural rules. The court determined the Commission had improperly created “new substantive rights for employees and new liabilities for employers,” which is the province of the Illinois Legislature, not the Commission.
Continue Reading Illinois withdraws rebuttable presumption rule for COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims