(WSIL) -- Illinois retailers and manufacturers filed a lawsuit against the states' recently implemented workers� compensation emergency rule.
The announced last week from the Illinois Workers� Compensation Commission requires employers of “first responders or essential front-line workers� to pay workers� compensation benefits to employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, assuming the worker contracted the virus on the job. That includes workers at grocery stores, laundries, banks and hardware stores, among other businesses.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association and the the Illinois Manufacturers Association filed the lawsuit saying the commission is "far exceeding its rulemaking authority."
“The substantive law of Illinois, and the wisdom of implementing it, is for the legislature, after proper discourse, and not the whim of the commission,� attorney Scott Cruz said in a statement.
Per state law, an agency is supposed to give a 45 days� notice of the rule change to the public.
The Workers� Compensation Commission said in the that going through that normal rule-making process would create the potential for “causing irreparable and irreversible harm to the public interest, public safety, and public welfare� because the pandemic brings unprecedented and “extreme� urgency.
Cruz said those businesses are already stretched far enough trying to make ends meet. "At a time when many are waiting for relief from the federal and state government in an effort to make payroll and retain workers, they will now be forced to pay for additional medical and salary costs regardless of whether an employees' illness was contracted outside of the workplace."
°ä±ôľ±ł¦°ěĚý to view the Illinois Workersâ€� Compensation Commission’s emergency order.
