Pritzker vetoes proposal to pay COVID-19 sick leave to all school employees, says only fully vaccinated should be compensated
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Gov. J.B. Pritzker vetoed legislation Monday that would have guaranteed COVID-19-related sick leave for school employees, while signaling support for a “compromise” plan that would limit compensation to only those who are fully vaccinated.
Pritzker and leaders with the state’s two largest teachers unions have been huddling for weeks, with the unions urging Pritzker to sign the School Employee Benefit and Wage Protection bill after it passed with strong bipartisan support in October.
Proponents said the measure was needed to support educators, especially those with young families, who were being forced to use all of their sick days if they or their children contracted the virus or were required to quarantine.
But the bill has languished on the governor’s desk for months, with opponents saying the measure could create a disincentive for those who are still unvaccinated to get the shot.
Officials with Pritzker’s office said in a statement Monday the governor and union leaders had “negotiated a compromise that will keep students and teachers safely in the classroom without penalizing vaccinated employees for taking COVID-required sick time.”
“This collaborative initiative will provide paid administrative leave for education employees who, despite doing all they can to keep themselves and their communities safe, continue to have their lives and livelihoods disrupted by COVID-19,” he said.
Kathi Griffin, president of the Illinois Education Association, who had long championed the original proposal, said “keeping schools open and those inside them — and their families — safe has been our number one priority from the start of the pandemic.”
“We want people to stay home when they’re sick, to be able to care for their children when their children need them the most, and to be paid when the circumstances that close their buildings are completely beyond their control,” Griffin said in a statement.
“This bill protects school and university employees and all those they teach, drive to and from school, feed and care for in so many ways,” she said. “Health care professionals and scientists have given us a path out of this pandemic and we should follow it.”
Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said the “pandemic has been physically, emotionally, and economically challenging for us all, and certainly no less so for educators, school staff and their families.”
“This legislation provides important relief and ensures that education personnel can afford to take time off if they or they families become ill with COVID,” Montgomery said.
A spokesperson for Senate Republicans declined to comment, saying lawmakers were waiting for the new bill to be filed, and had yet to review the details.
Officials with Pritzker’s office said the “joint initiative,” if passed, would provide paid administrative leave for every employee of a public school district who is “fully vaccinated or has received the required doses to become fully vaccinated within five weeks” of passage of the law. It applies to anyone “who is required, or whose child is required, to be excluded from school because of a positive COVID-19 test result or close contact with a person who had a confirmed case of COVID-19.”
If passed, the law would also provide pay for fully vaccinated employees who are required by “the school or school district policy to be excluded from school district property due to COVID-19 symptoms,” officials said.
While the proposed legislation would only benefit those who are fully vaccinated, the governor’s executive order on vaccinations for school employees issued last August included an option for those declining the vaccines to test weekly.
Pritzker defended the move to critics last fall, insisting the testing option was “not a loophole.”
“You know there are people who are genuinely still afraid to get vaccinated for whatever reason,” Pritzker said at the time.
“They need to be educated about the vaccine,” he said. “And so, we’re giving them a moment. We’re requiring that, but we’re also saying that, you know, if you’re not able to get vaccinated right now, you can get tested.”
Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed.
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