IL HB4491

Expands the Public Employee Disability Act to cover line-of-duty illness in addition to injury, allowing eligible employees who become unable to perform duties due to illness to receive continued pay and benefits.

Requires employers to pay disabled employees on the same gross pay basis, inclusive of all pensionable salary, rather than simply "on the same basis" as before the injury.

Adds continued accrual of sick leave credits during the disability period, in addition to the existing protections against deductions from sick leave, compensatory time, vacation, and pension service credits.

Eligible employees include state correctional officers, Department of Corrections and Prisoner Review Board employees, Department of Human Services employees at penal or mental health facilities, and full-time law enforcement officers, firefighters, and paramedics employed by state or local government entities.

Benefits continue for up to one year per injury/illness, with employees prohibited from other employment during the disability period; the Act does not apply to home rule units with populations over 1,000,000.