Former State Representative Chad Hays is officially back in state government as a member of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
Hays became a member of the board earlier this month, replacing former Republican Congresswoman Judy Biggert. He told WDAN’s Linda Bolton that the board is similar to the main Labor Relations Board, hearing cases from K-12 schools as well as universities.
“It’s essentially a tribunal,” he explained. “There are five members that hear cases related to education, largely related to labor management disputes.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hays says the group has been meeting remotely, but he says he is hopeful that they can meet in-person again later this year. The pandemic is also taking up much of the board’s cases, not dealing with scientific facts but labor disputes between parties.
“What we’re deciding is–has there been a breach in the collective bargaining agreement, one party or the other, are they working and operating outside of the dynamics of the collective bargaining agreement and outside the dynamics of the statute,” he said.
Hays says he is spending the majority of his time reading over case dockets and other information about disputes that the board is hearing.
Board members are not allowed to have any other outside compensation. Hays most recently was the director of Crosspoint Human Services, which he resigned from to take the job. The board can have up to seven members, but only has five current members.
