A Springfield judge has blocked the administration of Gov. JB Pritzker from implementing sweeping new workers’ comp rules that business groups said were created illegally and which would leave employers unfairly holding the bag for potentially billions of dollars in costs for health care and disability payments for a broad number of workers infected by COVID-19.
On April 23, Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge John M. Madonia slapped a temporary restraining order on the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, just one day after a coalition of business groups from throughout the state filed suit to block the new COVID-related rules.
The Illinois Manufacturers Association and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association had filed their complaint in Sangamon County court on April 22. The organizations said the lawsuit was filed on behalf of their members and a number of other business associations and trade groups throughout Illinois.
The complaint asserts the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission “far” exceeded its “rulemaking authority.”
“The Amendments at issue are clearly substantive in that they create new rights for employees and new obligations for employers,” the business groups argued. “Employers have a protectable interest in being free from invalid lawmaking that blatantly requires employers to carry the healthcare load of a public pandemic.
“That is exactly what is going on here.”
They pointed to public statements by Gov. JB Pritzker, who defended the new rules by saying the burden “sometimes … will fall on the people who are most able to pick up the tab.”
The WCC approved the rules on April 13, at Pritzker’s request, granting easier access to workers’ comp benefits for millions of Illinois workers who may have been infected by the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 illness.
Under previous rules, Illinois employees seeking workers’ comp for an infectious disease illness were required to present proof they had been infected at work, or that it was otherwise attributable to actions taken by their employer.
However, under the new rules, the burden of proof falls on the employer, to prove the employees did not become infected by COVID-19 at work.
The new amendment would apply not just to health care workers and first responders, but to anyone working at a business designated by Gov. Pritzker as “essential” during the statewide COVID-19 emergency response. This would include anyone still working at supermarkets, hardware stores, takeout restaurants, factories, parcel delivery services, gas stations, day care centers, hotels, trucking and logistics companies, construction companies and laundry services, among many others.
Under the new rules, employers would be required to provide evidence somehow demonstrating the employees contracted the illness somewhere other than their workplaces or while performing work duties.
The plaintiffs assert only the Illinois General Assembly – which has not convened at all since Pritzker declared the statewide emergency in March – could change the rules. They assert the Commission exceeded its authority.
The plaintiffs have since been joined in the action by a coalition of insurance and business organizations, who filed a brief in support of the lawsuit.
In the brief, the insurers assert they estimate the changes could cost employers and insurers more than $1 billion in additional claims to finance employee quarantines related to COVID-19.
Organizations represented in the “friend of the court,” or amicus, brief, include the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois and DRI.
The Cook County Record is owned by the Institute for Legal Reform of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“While such quarantine measures are necessary and appropriate from a public health standpoint, the workers’ compensation system was not designed to bear the massive costs associated with such a fundamental change in public policy – and certainly not based on an Emergency Amendment to the Rules of Evidence completely devoid of any public debate,” the amici organizations wrote.
Further, the organizations said the additional costs that would be imposed by the new rules could ravage Illinois’ business community, at a time of considerable weakness.
“Simply put, the costs of creating a broad presumption of compensability for exposure to COVID-19 are unexpected and potentially disastrous to employers and insurers that fund a system that must remain viable beyond the current pandemic for the benefit of future injured workers,” the organizations wrote.
The amici insurers and business organizations are represented by attorneys with the firm of Locke Lord LLP, of Chicago.