SPRINGFIELD (Capitol News Illinois)— Gov. JB Pritzker issued a rare veto Friday of a bill that would require warehouse workers in Illinois to know quotas they must meet at their jobs.
While signing 16 other bills into law that the General Assembly passed during the January “lame duck” session, Pritzker rejected House Bill 2547.Lawmakers passed the measure in hopes of providing workers at Illinois warehouse more transparency about requirements of their job.
“While I share the goal of protecting warehouse workers from dangerous and unfair working conditions, this bill was passed hastily at the end of the Lame Duck session without engagement with relevant state agencies or my office and presents both legal and operational issues that undermine its effect,” Pritzker said in a letter to lawmakers.
The bill would have required that warehouse employees be given a written description of any quota they will be assessed on, including the number of tasks they must perform and the time tasks should be completed in. The bill would prohibit employers from punishing workers for failing to meet quotas because they took bathroom, meal or rest breaks.
Employees would be allowed to sue for violations.
Pritzker wrote that the bill is too vague on exactly what workers would be covered under the law. Processes for enforcing the policy are also unclear, even though the bill called for civil penalties against employers that violate the proposed law. The bill defined employees as people who work at warehouses and are subject to quotas requiring specific productivity speeds or a number of tasks that must be performed before an employee faces adverse action for failing to meet performance standards.
Delivery drivers would not be covered under the bill.
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“In this tight budget year and in the face of unpredictable enforcement and funding from the federal government, it is critical that advocates, legislators and my administration work together to ensure any new labor laws are straightforward to implement and do not create a risk of legal challenges,” Pritzker wrote.
Pritzker has rarely issued vetoes since he became governor in 2019 and has largely found himself on the same page with the Democratic supermajority in the legislature.
Lawmakers can override Pritzker’s veto. The bill passed the House with bipartisan support from 79 lawmakers, meaning it could have enough support to break the 71-vote threshold needed to override a veto. The path to override in the Senate is unclear, however. Bills need 36 votes to override a veto in the Senate, but this bill received 35 votes when it passed in January.
Separately from the bill, Pritzker wrote that he is directing the Illinois Department of Labor to work with stakeholders on creating a plan to address concerns about quotas and worker safety at warehouses. He wrote he is also asking the department to establish a “field enforcement team that can respond quickly and effectively to dangerous conditions, lack of meal and rest breaks, and other concerns in warehouses.”
The bill passed with support from several Illinois labor unions. Pasquale Gianni of the Teamsters Joint Council 25 union in Chicago told lawmakers in January his union has heard about non-unionized employees who are afraid the time it would take to commute to and from the bathroom would prevent them from hitting their quota, which could result in them losing their job.
Business groups opposed the bill over similar concerns Pritzker had that definitions in the bill were too broad.
By BEN SZALINSKI
Capitol News Illinois
bszalinski@capitolnewsillinois.com
Jade Aubrey contributed.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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