The New Illinois Labor Laws: Workers? Comp

There are so many new labor laws in the state of Illinois that it will take perhaps the rest of my blogs today to cover the laws put into effect recently by the state of Illinois legislature and their counterweight in the executive arm of the state government, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich.

Besides the other laws that we just covered, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich also helped to put into effect important new laws in the state of Illinois that affect that state’s workers’ comp system. And any employer knows how dear and near to their heart a state workers’ comp system can be. These laws dictate how employers have to treat their employers when they get hurt on the job and disabled and unable to return to work.

Under Governor Rod R. Blagojevich leadership, the Illinois workers’ comp system has been changed by increasing the benefits for injured workers. Governor Rod R. Blagojevich also has worked to pass labor laws to make the workers’ comp system simultaneously cheaper for employers. All the while, the new laws for workers’ comp under Governor Rod R. Blagojevich have also aimed at fighting workers’ comp fraud and cutting costs that way.

These make up changes to the Illinois workers’ comp system that represent the first major revision to the system since 20 years ago. And it wasn’t done by just Governor Rod R. Blagojevich and the state legislature. Governor Rod R. Blagojevich also involved meetings with business leaders and their counterparts in the labor unions and organizations. The whole process took months to work out, during the course of the last couple years of Governor Rod R. Blagojevich’s term.

Illinois represents one of a handful of states—including California and Texas—where legislators have undertaken a major reform of the workers’ comp system.