General Assembly adjourns without vote on back pay

The General Assembly wrapped up its fall Veto Session without taking action on a supplemental appropriation needed to pay the remainder of the back pay owed to thousands of state workers. 

The state’s dire fiscal woes hampered legislative action on HB 6326, the back pay bill, as well as other supplemental appropriations needed to keep key elements of state government functioning over the coming months.

“AFSCME members are keenly aware of the state’s financial problems,” said Council 31 legislative director, Joanna Webb-Gauvin. “But those problems do not justify the state’s failure to pay the debt it owes to its own employees.”

AFSCME will continue to battle on the legal front to secure a court order requiring that the money owed must be paid to 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.

“The principle involved here is fundamental to the collective bargaining process,” said Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch. “A union contract is a legally binding document and it cannot just be set aside based on changing circumstances. We intend to fight on in the courts to ensure that principle is upheld and the money owed to employees is paid.”