Beginning January 1, 2024, Illinois employees will be covered under the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act. The legislation provides that paid leave employees will earn up to 40 hours of paid leave per year at the rate of one hour for every 40 hours worked. Highland already provides paid leave benefits to many of the employees covered under this Act. In order to ensure compliance and that employees are getting the correct coverage outlined in the Act, Highland will be making paid leave changes. These policy revisions will be presented to the Board for first reading at their May 23 regular meeting, with a second reading at their June 21, 2023, quarterly retreat. If approved, the revisions will be effective with the start of the fiscal year, July 1.
Here are a few highlights.
Policy 4.16 Leave, Personal Days will be changed from 3 to 5 days for eligible full-time classified, professional and administrative staff. Regular part-time classified and professional employees will be eligible for personal days based on hours worked. The benefit will be front loaded and will need to be used by the end of each fiscal year.
Policy 4.095 Leave, Vacation Days for eligible full-time employees will be reduced by 2 days at each level and shifted to personal days. For employees scheduled to work 32 hours per week, vacation days will be reduced by 5 days and shifted to personal days. The overall paid days leave between personal and vacation will remain the same.
Personal, Vacation and Sick Leave policies will be adjusted to allow use in 2-hour increments.