Calls needed to back up back pay bill

It’s critical that AFSCME members who are owed back pay contact their legislators TODAY. Call your lawmakers toll-free using the AFSCME hotline – 888-912-5959 – and tell them to support HB 6326!

Despite the state’s dire fiscal woes, AFSCME’s grassroots lobbying effort in the final weeks of the spring legislative session convinced the General Assembly to include funding for a portion of back wages owed to state employees in five agencies in the state’s FY 15 budget. Now the union is urging legislators to finish the job in the fall veto session.

At the same time, AFSCME continues to battle on the legal front to secure a court order requiring that the money owed must be paid to thousands of frontline employees in DOC, DJJ, DNR, DHS and DPH.

The union won a big victory in late September when a panel of appellate court judges ruled that employees must be paid what they are owed, even without an appropriation from the legislature.

However, the appellate court’s decision only remanded the case back to circuit court for action – action that is now on hold pending a decision by Attorney General Lisa Madison as to whether she will appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. Madigan’s office received an extension allowing her to delay that decision until December 8 and has given notice that it will seek yet another extension – a move AFSCME lawyers will oppose.

With the wheels of justice grinding slowly, AFSCME is urging state legislators to heed the appellate court’s reasoning by passing HB 6326, a special supplemental appropriation, during the Fall Veto Session now underway.

Passage of legislation in the Veto Session requires a 3/5 vote, rather than a simple majority.

Given the short time frame for the Veto Session – and all of the budgetary pressures on legislators – it’s critical that AFSCME members who are owed back pay contact their legislators TODAY. Call your lawmakers toll-free using the AFSCME hotline – 888-912-5959 – and tell them to support HB 6326!