Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau is against having the state or county mandate paid leave for all municipal employees. (Photo by Jeff Vorva)
Orland Park uses home-rule to avoid state law on paid leave
By Jeff Vorva
The Village of Orland Park has decided not to follow a state mandate requiring paid leave for most workers in Illinois.
The village board on Nov. 20 approved a lengthy ordinance that basically says it will opt out of the Paid Leave for All Workers Act that takes effect on January 1. Illinois is the third state to enact such a law.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed the bill into law in March. It calls for one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked for most workers. Workers can start using the paid leave after March 31 or after 90 days on the job.
The law exempts independent contractors and employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement prior to January 1.
Orland Park is exercising its home-rule rights to circumvent the new law.
“This is unbelievable overstepping from the state of Illinois,” Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau said before the vote. “And it looks like Cook County is about to do the same thing. It’s absurd that they are directing businesses and municipalities to give paid leave to everyone. Part-time employees included. Seasonal employees. High school lifeguards. High school parks [workers]. It’s absurd.”
Pekau said that the compensation packages that the village offers are fair.
“We obviously have a pretty healthy benefit package, as do most employers, for their fulltime people but they do that because they compete with other employers,” the mayor said. “It shouldn’t be the state directing that. It’s absolutely unacceptable for the state to be doing this to us and to anyone else.”
He pointed out that schools and park districts are exempt from the new law.
“They get special treatment but no one else does,” Pekau said. “They [the state] might as well exempt themselves, too.”
He said that this would also interfere with negotiations for employees’ contracts.
Pekau said similar laws and mandates for businesses have helped drive up the prices on consumer goods as well.
“When people are complaining about paying $8 for a bag of pretzels at the grocery store or $10.75 for a Big Mac meal that was five-something five years ago, you directly have the state of Illinois and Cook County to blame,” he said. “They are putting these costs for entry-level workers.
“I worked at a Circle K. I worked at an Arby’s. I worked delivering pizzas, so I’m sure we all have stories, right? We were entry-level workers. We were learning how to work while still building our education and everything else for our future careers. To saddle businesses with that is making it very hard for people to do business in this state and in this county.”
3 Comments
Local News
‘Curtis got it done’
Spread the love. Pete’s Fresh Market opens at 87/Kedzie . By Tim Hadac A grand opening that wasn’t supposed to happen…happened in Ashburn this month. For 18th Ward Ald. Derrick G. Curtis, architect of the development, it was a time of joy and nervous energy. “I didn’t get any sleep last night,” he told several…
A strange, blustery day in Springfield
Spread the love. By Rich Miller . I’m not sure I’ve seen a stranger roll call than last week’s House vote on Senate Bill 2978. The data privacy bill is an initiative of Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, and he was on the House floor during the debate. The far-right ginned up social media…
Investigate Ozinga in sex-text scandal
Spread the love. By Ray Hanania . Vicious text messages and robocalls were flying targeting state Sen. Michael Hastings (D-19th) in the year leading up to Hastings re-election bid on Nov. 8, 2022. . The messages were sexually explicit and sought to disparage Hastings, who was also in a contentious divorce with his wife. He…
Learning history is fun, honest
Spread the love Seventh and eighth graders from Our Lady of the Snows School clamor to rub the nose of a bust of President Abraham Lincoln during a field trip to Springfield earlier this month. Rubbing the nose of the famous bust of Honest Abe–a part of the tomb of the nation’s 16th President–is said…
Fight to save ShotSpotter is still alive
Spread the love. By Tim Hadac Editor Clear-Ridge Reporter & NewsHound (708)-496-0265 . As you have read several times in the Clear-Ridge Reporter & NewsHound, the people of Clearing and Garfield Ridge are clear in their support of keeping ShotSpotter technology deployed in Chicago, to help police fight crime. So I won’t go over old…
63rd Street getting a facelift
Spread the love. Quinn hails federally funded resurfacing project . By Tim Hadac The old joke about there being not four seasons, but just two in Chicago each year—winter and construction—was apparent late last week as heavy equipment arrived in Clearing. As 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn and other city officials gathered for an outdoor…
Tabares blasts Foxx over ‘no seizure’ idea
Spread the love. Brands State’s Attorney as ‘pro-criminal’ . By Tim Hadac Twenty-third Ward Ald. Silvana Tabares this week blasted outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx over a possible change in how crimes are—or are not–prosecuted.Foxx recently said she is considering a plan to decline to prosecute weapons and drug crimes detected by routine…
School can get messy
Spread the love Second grader Weronika Kozielec squirts ketchup on the head of Our Lady of the Snows School Principal Christina Avis at a recent gathering in the parking lot of the school, 4810 S. Leamington. But the condiment was not all that was dumped on the principal. Students, faculty and staff laughed and cheered…
Obituaries May 23, 2024
Spread the loveTEOFILO ARRIETA Teofilo Arrieta, age 93, passed away March 26, 2024. Visitation was held April 5 at Szykowny Funeral Home Ltd., 4901 South Archer Avenue, Chicago. Funeral Mass was held April 6 at Our Lady of the Snows Parish, 4810 S. Leamington Ave, Chicago. Final resting place Queen of Heaven, 1400 S. Wolf…
Neighbors
Senate Democrats send $53.1B spending plan to House
By JERRY NOWICKI Capitol News Illinois jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com Two days after the General Assembly was scheduled to adjourn its spring session, Democrats in the Illinois Senate advanced a $53.1 billion budget to the House Sunday night, where leaders expect it to pass without changes. The fiscal year 2025 spending plan, which came together over a stretch…
Prairie Band Potawatomi land deal clears Senate, will head back to House
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is a step closer to acquiring a 1,500-acre state park in DeKalb County, much of which was once part of a reservation that was illegally seized from the tribe in the mid-19 th century. As the Senate worked through its last…
Budget negotiations will extend into next week as House leaves Springfield
By JERRY NOWICKI & HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Democrats in the General Assembly will go at least three more days past their self-imposed adjournment deadline after failing to pass a budget bill Saturday, although the spending and revenue framework were made public for the first time. “The House and Senate are…
Maternal health, abortion protection measures advance as session nears end
By ALEX ABBEDUTO Capitol News Illinois abbeduto@capitolnewsillinois.com In the final days of their spring legislative session, Democrats in the General Assembly advanced measures aimed at expanding and protecting aspects of maternal and women’s health care. If signed into law, the measures would expand insurance coverage of pregnancy and postpartum services, maintain abortion as a viable…
Health insurance changes targeting ‘utilization management,’ more will head to governor
By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – A package of health insurance reform measures that Gov. JB Pritzker called for at the beginning of the legislative session will soon be headed to his desk for his signature. The Illinois House gave final approval Saturday to a pair of bills that limit the ability…
Capitol Briefs: Republicans sue over law banning legislative candidate slating
By HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois hmeisel@capitolnewsillinois.com One week after Gov. JB Pritzker signed an elections-related measure that his fellow Democrats quickly muscled through the General Assembly, Republicans sued over the new law, alleging the majority party is blocking ballot access to would-be legislative candidates. The law , passed early this month as the legislature’s…
Illinois Supreme Court considers expectation of privacy in hospitals
By DILPREET RAJU & ANDREW ADAMS Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – While Cortez Turner was in a hospital room being treated for a gunshot wound to his leg in 2016, police took his clothes. Now, the Illinois Supreme Court is weighing whether that action violated Turner’s expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment. The…
Capitol Briefs: Measure targets ‘legacy’ admission at public universities
By DILPREET RAJU, COLE LONGCOR & ALEX ABBEDUTO Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com Illinois lawmakers missed a self-imposed Friday deadline for passing a budget, but they had approved more than 250 bills this week as of Friday afternoon. Amid the flurry of legislation was a measure prohibiting state universities from admitting students based on familial and…
Illinois could be 19th state to phase out subminimum wage for disabled workers
By ALEX ABBEDUTO Capitol News Illinois abbeduto@capitolnewsillinois.com After years of negotiations and continued opposition from service providers, Illinois appears poised to prohibit employers from using a federal exemption that allows them to pay individuals with disabilities less than the minimum wage. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established minimum wage law, but created…
Capitol Briefs: Measure blocks interstate probes of abortion services
By PETER HANCOCK & COLE LONGCOR Capitol News Illinois news@capitolnewsillinois.com SPRINGFIELD – Authorities in Illinois would not be allowed to aid another state’s investigation of people coming to Illinois to seek abortions or other reproductive health care under a bill that cleared the General Assembly Thursday. House Bill 5239, which needs only a signature from…
This is a very good move by the mayor and village. I agree with everything he states here. Way to go mayor!
Governor Pritzker worst nightmare imaginable
Mayor Pekau is an idiot. Always has been, always will be. And, your comments make you suspect.