A Lot of Illinois Workers Just Got Workers Comp for Covid-19

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has announced an emergency amendment to the Illinois Workers Compensation Act that retroactively makes the COVID-19 virus an occupational disease for a great number of workers in Illinois, with a 'rebuttable presumption" that the infection was "casually connected" to their work.

The Amendment makes this change retroactive back to March 20, 2020 and covers workers in a considerable number of industries. These industries are described as "Front Line Workers" which may confusingly suggest that these workers are medical folk or first responders, but those workers are separately included in the amendment. Front Line Workers are defined in this amendment as workers in:

grocery and pharmacy; food, beverage and cannabis production; charitable and social service organizations; gas stations and businesses needed for transportation; financial institutions; hardware and supply stores; critical trades; mail, post, shipping, logistics, delivery and pick-up services; educational institutions; laundry services; restaurants for consumption off-premises; essential business and work-from-home suppliers; home-based care and services; residential facilities and shelters; professional services; day-care centers for children of essential workers; manufacture, distribution and supply chain for critical products and industries; critical labor union functions; hotels and motels; and funeral services.

This makes COVID-19 a covered occupational disease for workers in all these fields, retroactive back to March 20.And the "rebuttable presumption" that it is connected to work means that the worker would not have to prove the infection came through work, but rather it would fall to the insurer or employer to prove that it was not, which in most cases would not be easily done.

Workers Compensation provides no-deductible, no co-pay medical insurance, coverage for lost time, and death benefits, if God forbid they were called for. Workers Compensation also provides coverage in the case of long-term disability or permanent disability.

In other words, this is a very big deal for a lot of workers in Illinois who might have lacked regular health insurance or paid sick leave.

This writer, in fact, has already turned in what might well be the first Workers Compensation claim under this new amendment, for one of our workers who was diagnosed with COVID-19 ten days ago. Until this amendment went into effective April 15 (but retroactive to March 20) COVID-19 would be difficult to establish as having been connected to work, but with this new amendment it is automatically presumed to be so.