Newly effective amendments to the Illinois Whistleblower Act (“IWA”) provide greatly enhanced protections and remedies to Illinois employees who report unlawful conduct by their employers. The IWA protects both private and government employees who report information that they believe violates the law, or who refuse to participate in an activity that they believe violates the law.[1] However, until January 1, 2025, the IWA required that employees report the alleged misconduct to an external government body. As revised, the IWA now protects internal whistleblower reports as well. The IWA amendments also create a more employee-friendly standard for demonstrating that the whistleblower believed that unlawful conduct was occurring and expand the remedies available for violations of the statute. Taken together, the changes detailed below bring Illinois law in line with some of the broadest federal and state-level whistleblower protections, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2022 (“SOX”) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (“CFPA”), both of which apply to disclosures made internally to the employer. Illinois also now mirrors several states that similarly provide whistleblower protection for internal disclosures, including New York, Minnesota, New Jersey, Virginia, and California.

Protecting Internal Disclosures

More Whistleblower-Friendly “Good Faith” Standard for Protected Activity

In addition to the protection for internal disclosures, the amended IWA also modifies the standard for whistleblower knowledge from requiring a “reasonable cause” to believe that the employer violated the law, to a “good faith” belief that the employer violated the law or posed a danger to the public. Although Illinois courts have not yet had an opportunity to define the “good faith belief” requirement, it may be easier for employees to bring a whistleblower claim as compared to SOX, which only covers employees who have a “reasonable belief” based on both an employee’s subjective and objective beliefs. Generally, good faith is considered to refer to honest dealing or a legitimate intent behind a person’s actions. For example, Illinois defines “good faith” in an unrelated statue as “honestly in fact in the conduct of the transaction.”[8] If the reporting employee must only show that they had an honest belief that their employer’s conduct violated law or policy or was a threat to public health or safety, employees may have an easier time meeting their initial burden.

Broader Remedies

Put together, these amendments to the IWA greatly increase the range of protections for whistleblowers who report misconduct internally within their employer. Under the new statutory scheme, the police dispatcher in Beasley would have likely survived dismissal because she experienced retaliation in the form of threats, denial of comp time, and suspension after she reported misconduct within the organization to her supervisor. The amended IWA will provide employees in Illinois with the important opportunity to take advantage of whistleblower protections at the state level.

[1] See 740 ILCS § 174/15; see also Whistleblower Retaliation, available at https://katzbanks.com/practice-areas/whistleblower-law/.

[2] Beasley v. City of Granite City, 442 F. Supp. 3d 1066, 1072-73 (S.D. Ill. 2020).

[3] Id . at 1073.

[4] Id . at 1074.

[5] The new rules under the IWA only apply proactively.

[6] 740 ILCS § 174/15(c).

[9] 740 ILCS § 174/25, 30.

[10] 740 ILCS § 174/31.