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Private employers nervous over proposed paid family medical leave for federal workers
ALM
April 1, 2009
Legislation that would give federal workers paid family medical leave has the private sector on edge, with Corporate America fearing, "we're probably next."
The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, which would give more than 600,000 federal workers four weeks of paid family leave to care for a newborn or adopted child, cleared a House subcommittee last week. The bill also would let federal workers use up to eight weeks of accrued paid sick time or annual leave immediately following the first four weeks of parental leave.
A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate.
Nice idea, bad timing, says Fox Rothschild partner Catherine Barbieri, who suspects the federal legislation could be a sign of what's to come for the private sector: mandatary paid Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave.
"Will it set the tone for private companies? Maybe, but there are a lot of private employers that are struggling right now, and to impose unfunded mandates on them — I just don't think it's the right time," said Barbieri, who runs a blog on FMLA matters.
Barbieri noted that the FMLA, which provides employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for sick family members, has long been a source of frustration for employers, particularly in the area of intermittent leave. Mandating that the leave be paid would only make matters worse, she said, particularly for smaller companies that are struggling to survive. She also noted that many large, private employers already provide six to eight weeks of paid maternity leave.
But that's not the case for federal employees, who have no paid family leave to care for a child, just up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the FMLA. That's what prompted Representative Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., to introduce the legislation.
"The federal government is the largest employer in the nation, but it lags behind the private sector on this vital work-life issue, so this bill can have a big impact," Maloney said in a statement.
But the private sector isn't doing all that great in the area of paid sick leave, either, said John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 600,000 federal workers.
"The time has come for the federal government to set the standard for U.S. employers on paid parental leave," Gage said in a statement. "The benefits to children and families of four weeks of paid parental leave are enormous and long lasting. This sets an example for private sector employers."
This latest sick leave legislation is part of a national paid sick days movement that started in 2006, when San Francisco became the first locality in the nation to guarantee paid sick days for all its workers. Since then, three states have adopted similar measures — New Jersey, California and Washington — and legislators in more than a dozen other states have introduced similar bills over the last year.
On Capitol Hill, similar legislation to give federal workers paid sick days won House approval last year but never received a Senate vote. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., recently introduced the paid leave bill in the Senate.
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