Ozzie and Harriet Work Outside Home: Nation Needs New Laws to Balance Work and Family
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With more women working outside the home to make ends meet in the global economy, the demands of working and caring for a family are becoming increasingly difficult.
Now as the nation decides how to cope with recession, we have a prime opportunity to take the next step and create workplace standards that are good for the bottom line and for working families, several experts told a congressional committee today.
A hearing by the Joint Economic Committee on “Balancing Work and Family in the Recession” examined the current recession’s impact on trends in the workplace that help employees meet the dual commitments of work and family life.
Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum told the committee that without enforceable workplace standards, such as paid family leave, most employers will not take necessary steps to initiate basic policies that allow workers to balance work and family.
Bailout Oversight Panel: Bank Stress Tests Don’t Go Far Enough
The federal government’s recent stress tests of the nation’s largest banks generally were well designed, but they did not go far enough or raise some serious concerns. The tests may need to be repeated often, according to a congressional panel overseeing the $700 billion financial bailout.
Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) this morning, Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren said the stress tests were based on assumptions about the economic downturn that may be too optimistic. The COP released a new report today that calls for more strenuous and transparent testing of the banks until the current economic crisis is over.
Paid Family Leave, Flight Attendant Security Measures Advance
Under bills passed by the House, federal workers are a step closer to receiving paid family leave following the birth or adoption of a new child and flight attendants would receive self-defense security training.
By a vote of 258-154, the House on June 4 passed the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 626), introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). It would allow federal workers up to four weeks of paid family leave for the birth or adoption of a child and would allow workers to use up to eight weeks of accrued paid sick time or annual leave immediately following the first four weeks of parental leave. Says Maloney:
As more families are relying on just one paycheck in these times, we can’t afford not to help them in this way. The federal government should join the majority of the private sector—including 75 of the Fortune 100—by enacting workplace policies that invest in employees and their children. It’s just unacceptable that right now the U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not provide support for federal workers with a new child.
Parental Leave Bill for Fed Workers Advances
Federal workers would be allowed four weeks of paid family leave to care for a newborn or adopted child under a bill approved by the full House Oversight and Government Reform Committee yesterday.
But the relatively routine markup did have its bizarre, sure-to-be-a-Daily-Show-with-Jon-Stewart moment, when one committee member warned that federal workers might abuse the bill by adopting children year after year to get those four weeks off with pay. More on that below.
