Illinois may be joining the small but growing list of states creating laws on warehouse safety as the state’s legislature enacted a budget bill Jan. 9 with provisions for a Warehouse Safety Standards Task Force.
New York has recently enacted a law targeting unlawful quotas that could lead to injuries for warehouse workers while Minnesota has a similar law in the works.
The Illinois budget bill, SB 1720, contains Public Act 102-1115, which allows the House of Representatives to create the Warehouse Safety Standards Task Force to provide lawmakers with information on the state of warehouse safety.
This task force will include:
- four members of the state’s House of Representatives
- four members of the state’s Senate
- one retail merchant representative
- one manufacturing representative
- one representative from the state’s Chamber of Commerce
- one representative of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
- one representative of a labor union representing warehouse workers
- one member of a worker advocacy organization representing warehouse workers, and
- the state’s Director of Labor.
The task force is required to provide quarterly updates of its findings to Governor J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly.
A final report of the task force’s recommendations is due no later than Jan. 1, 2025.
