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Alderwoman Maria Hadden’s proposal requires employers to provide
shade when the outdoor heat index exceeds 80 degrees and
15-minute cooling periods every two hours when the heat index
exceeds 90. The measure also includes temperature monitoring
requirements, training, record keeping and other provisions.
Hadden posted a video on social media after her ordinance was
not called for a vote last week.
“We were able to prevent the ordinance from being voted down,
which is a good thing,” Hadden said.
Patrick Schweska, general counsel for the Illinois
Manufacturers’ Association, said many Illinois businesses have
facilities both inside and outside the city.
“You could create a framework in which you have an enforcement
regime within one particular municipality, but then outside of
that municipality, you're subject to a different enforcement
regime where you're allowed to do your workplace safety
standards as you had normally done them,” Schweska told The
Center Square.
Schweska said the ordinance would create a Chicago-specific
workplace safety system that would make it more difficult to do
business in the city.
The Center Square asked Schweska about the ordinance’s private
right of action provision that would allow workers to recover
civil damages and potentially impact taxpayers with additional
court proceedings.
Schweska said similar measures have been introduced in Chicago
and by state lawmakers in Springfield.
“They're continuing to sneak private rights of action into
legislation that continue to put businesses on the hook. And it
makes no distinction between bad actors and good faith mistakes
as well,” Schweska said.
Chicago’s workplace heat ordinance was introduced in 2023 and
stalled without a vote last week.
Schweska told The Center Square that Chicago employers could
face different sets of regulations from city, state and federal
governments.
“It continues to give businesses pause as to whether they want
to locate here, whether they want to be here, or whether they
want to continue investing at a time when I would say that both
the city and the state could really use it given the fiscal
environment,” Schweska said.
The city council is scheduled to meet again Tuesday.
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