ASA-Supported Staffing Agencies Overturn Benefit Matching Requirement in Illinois

Other Day and Temporary Labor Services Act provisions become effective April 1, 2024

In a significant, albeit partial, victory, the ASA affiliated Staffing Services Association of Illinois and several staffing firms have won a federal court injunction halting the enforcement of Illinois' recently imposed requirement that industrial staffing firms match their clients' benefits. Left standing, at least for now, are the client pay matching provisions, which take effect on April 1, 2024. The court also declined to enjoin the Act's strike notice provisions.

The rulings are preliminary, and the case will continue to be litigated for several years, including anticipated appeals. In the meantime, industrial staffers in Illinois are bracing to see how their clients will react when the pay matching provisions become effective.

The Act's equivalent benefit requirement was particularly problematic, since comparing and valuing different benefit plans would be a challenging exercise, to say the least. Fortunately, Judge Thomas M. Durkin of the United States District Court ruled that the benefit matching requirement impermissibly interferes with the federal benefits law known as ERISA under the preemption doctrine (federal law overcomes inconsistent state law).

Attached below are copies of the Complaint challenging the law and the court's injunction order.