On August 9, 2024, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed HB 2161, the newest amendment to the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA), which prohibits employers from discriminating against an employee or applicant based on their “family responsibilities.” Illinois is the sixth state to offer this type of employment protection.
Specifically, the amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of an employee's actual or perceived provision of personal care to a family member, whether in the past, present, or future.
Under the law, “personal care” includes activities to ensure that a covered family member's basic medical, hygiene, nutritional, or safety needs are met, or to provide transportation to medical appointments, for a covered family member who is unable to meet those needs themself. It also includes being physically present to provide emotional support to a covered family member with a serious health condition who is receiving inpatient or home care. A “covered family member” is limited to an employee's child, stepchild, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent.
The amended IHRA makes it a civil rights violation for any employer to refuse to hire, segregate, engage in harassment, or act with respect to recruitment, hiring, promotion, renewal of employment, selection for training or apprenticeship, discharge, discipline, tenure or terms, privileges or conditions of employment on the basis of family responsibilities. It is also a civil rights violation for an employer to retaliate against a person who, in good faith, opposes discrimination based on family responsibilities.
Notwithstanding the expanded scope of the IHRA’s anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation provisions, the amendment does provide some reprieve for employers who might be wary of an incoming deluge of family-based accommodation requests. The amendment specifically states that employers are not obligated to make accommodations or modifications to reasonable workplace rules or policies for employees based on family responsibilities. It even says that an employer shall not be prevented from taking an adverse action or otherwise enforcing reasonable workplace rules or policies related to leave, scheduling, productivity, attendance, absenteeism, timeliness, and work performance as long as the policies are applied in accordance with the law.
As such, the law protects employees from biases related to their caregiver status, but does not grant additional accommodation rights. In other words, employees cannot be fired because of a perception that they would be less committed to work due to family responsibilities, but employees cannot use their caregiver status as a reason to avoid meeting legitimate work expectations.
In light of the amendment, Illinois employers should take proactive steps to understand and implement the changes to ensure compliance, such as amending their non-discrimination policies and including caregiver status in their anti-discrimination trainings.
