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.
