Over the last month IFCA has received multiple phone calls and emails from members regarding the new State of Illinois law that went into effect on January 1st on the seven-day work and one day rest for all hourly employees.  As the title of the bill indicates you would give all hourly employees one day rest if they work seven straight days. At the IFCA convention in January, IFCA had attorney Jeff Rishch, who is a labor expert come and speak on this topic.  Jeff’s convention presentation slides are here.  After speaking with Jeff, IFCA believes our industry falls under the exemption because the State of Illinois used the same definition of agriculture as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.  After visiting with many members of the industry, some companies did not feel like that was cover enough from this new law. After digging more into a solution for the industry, IFCA has asked the Illinois Department of Labor to give the whole industry an exemption. The exemption that IFCA has requested from the Department of Labor is up to 8 weeks. The time period that IFCA requested from the Department of Labor for the exemption would be from April 15th until June 15th of 2023. We understand that other associations have applied for this same waiver and have been approved. Attached is the letter that IFCA sent to the Illinois Department of Labor and our application. We are still waiting to hear back from Department of Labor if IFCA receives approval. Once we receive approval we will also pass that letter onto our membership.
 
Going forward every spring IFCA will request this eight-week waiver starting April 15th to June 15th. We understand that many of our members will also need this waiver going into fall. We ask our members to apply for this waiver for their own company in the fall hours. We know our members have several questions regarding this new law. If you do, please do not hesitate to reach out to KJ Johnson at kj@ifca.com.  We appreciate everyone that has reached out on this new law and understanding that IFCA is trying to get the best advice possible for our members.