In June 2022, Mary White, a deputy correctional officer with the Will County Sheriff’s Department in Illinois, was terminated. The termination came just two months after she had completed workers’ compensation paperwork, which she had filed due to complications stemming from a December 2020 COVID-19 diagnosis. White did not believe that the timing of her termination was a coincidence.
Three years passed before White formally challenged her termination. On February 2, 2025, she filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Labor Relations Board alleging that her discharge violated the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. The core of her claim was that the County had terminated her in response to her workers’ compensation claims.
The Board’s Executive Director conducted an initial investigation into the charge and recommended dismissal, finding that the charge was untimely, and
that on the merits, White failed to allege a viable claim under the Act because filing a workers’ compensation claim does not constitute protected concerted activity.
White appealed the Executive Director’s dismissal to the full State Panel of the Board. In her appeal, she did not dispute the lateness of her filing. Instead, she sought relief from the timeliness determination by arguing that her health conditions from COVID-19 prevented her from filing the charge within the six-month period. She asked the Board to toll the limitations period due to her illness.
On July 10, 2025, the Board unanimously affirmed the Executive Director’s dismissal.
The Board reaffirmed the absolute nature of the six-month deadline, citing Section 11(a) of the Act: “no complaint shall issue based upon any unfair labor practice occurring more than six-months prior to the filing of a charge with the Board.” The Board emphasized that once an adverse action occurs, a charging party is required to act with “due diligence” to determine if a violation has occurred.
The Board acknowledged that the limitation period is not entirely rigid and can be tolled under specific, narrow circumstances. It explained that tolling is appropriate only if there is evidence that the employer took active steps to prevent the employee from filing a charge, or if a truly catastrophic event, entirely beyond the employee’s control, made filing impossible.
Applying this high standard to White’s circumstances, the Board found her evidence lacking. She provided only “scant evidence” that her COVID-19 symptoms precluded her from filing her charge within the critical six-month window following her June 2022 termination. Without detailed medical evidence or a compelling explanation for a delay of over two years, her claim did not meet the high threshold for equitable tolling. Her argument was functionally akin to claiming “COVID ate my homework,” a justification the Board found legally insufficient to excuse a multi-year delay.
Because the Board found the charge was not timely filed, it declared it had lost jurisdiction over the matter entirely. Therefore, the Board expressly declined to address whether filing a workers’ compensation claim could ever be the basis for an unfair labor practice charge, leaving that question for another day.
Will County Sheriff’s Department, 42 PERI ¶ 24 (ILRB 2025).