Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

Re: Employer obligations

The Illinois Emergency Worker Job Protection Act provides: "No public or private employer may terminate an employee who is a volunteer emergency worker because the employee, when acting as a volunteer emergency worker, is absent from or late to his or her employment in order to respond to an emergency prior to the time the employee is to report to his or her place of employment."

Note that it applies very specifically to an employee who is "absent from or late to his or her employment in order to respond to an emergency prior to the time the employee is to report to his or her place of employment". It appears to be specifically limited to emergencies that arise before the employee's work day starts. It does not appear to require an employer to allow a worker to leave his job to respond.

David K. Staub, an Illinois business attorney