NTEU Welcomes Markup of House Bill to Provide Federal Workers with Paid Parental Leave

03/25/2009

3/25/09: NTEU national President Colleen Kelley today applauded the markup by a key House subcommittee of a bipartisan measure to provide federal workers with four weeks of paid parental leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

President Kelley, who has long promoted the idea of providing paid parental leave for federal employees, welcomed the markup of H.R. 626. “Many of the country’s top companies already offer a paid benefit and the federal government needs to do the same,” President Kelley said. “Besides helping to ensure that every federal worker has the ability to adequately care for a new family, paid parental leave also provides federal agencies with a highly-effective tool in their continuing efforts to recruit and retain high-quality employees.”

The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act, a key legislative priority for NTEU, was approved today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce. The measure was introduced by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and is similar to one approved by the House in the last session of Congress. A companion bill, S. 354, was introduced recently by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). It is currently pending.

“This important benefit would bring the government’s approach toward a proper work-life balance for federal employees closer to that of many other industrialized nations and the private sector,” Kelley said. It also would save the government money by reducing employee turnover and replacement costs, estimated to be 25 percent of the employee’s salary, she added.
Under H.R. 626, federal employees caring for a newborn or adopted child would be able to combine their paid and FMLA leave. The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for federal workers for a number of reasons, including the birth or adoption of a child.

President Kelley has previously testified in Congress about the hardships some federal employees face when forced to choose between a paycheck and the desire to stay home with a new child. Her testimony last year on this important subject prompted a number of phone calls and e-mails from NTEU members who shared the hardships they encountered when their only available leave option was unpaid leave.

“Some of the people I heard from had terminally ill family members, and having used up all their sick leave and annual leave on caring for them, had nothing left to use upon the birth of a child,” President Kelley said. “A benefit such as this breathes life into the idea of a family-friendly workplace.”