Is the state set to kill the family medical leave act?
Jan 28, 2013, 6:46 AM | Updated: 9:09 am
"People working in the hotels making your beds or people who are working in the restaurants serving your meals and many other service jobs have absolutely no paid leave," Sen. Keiser said. "We have new moms giving birth on Thursday and going back to work on Monday." (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
The legislature passed a family medical leave bill six years ago, and it still hasn’t figured out how to implement it or how to pay for it. So some lawmakers say it’s time to simply get rid of it.
The state family medical leave act allows for up to 12 weeks of paid time off after a pregnancy or to help a sick family member. It was passed in 2007 and kicked down the road by lawmakers in 2009 and 2011.
Democratic Senator Tim Sheldon, who voted against the original bill in 2007, said it’s time to get rid of it. “It was never implemented by the legislature,” he said. “A task force was put together. That task force never came to any conclusions on how it would be administered.”
It’s a “well-intentioned” and feel-good law, according to Sheldon, but one that the state can’t afford. “We need to take it off the books because it’s part of the unfunded liability that counts toward our deficit,” he said.
He said the legislature has more pressing funding needs right now, especially in education.
Senator Karen Keiser who championed the original act and pushed to get it passed said the act hasn’t been funded because of the recession so it shouldn’t be punished for that.
“It’s not painful, but it is frustrating to have the great recession hit, which has set so many steps forward, backwards,” said Keiser.
Keiser believes this act is necessary and should be funded, not just thrown away. “People working in the hotels making your beds or people who are working in the restaurants serving your meals and many other service jobs have absolutely no paid leave,” Keiser said. “We have new moms giving birth on Thursday and going back to work on Monday.”
She said it would only cost about $14 million out of the budget to get the program up and running, and she said the time off would be paid for by employees. “This bill has been introduced every year by the Republicans,” she said, but this year it has a chance of passing because of the coup by several Senate Democrats who now vote with the Republicans.
“This year, unfortunately, because the Republicans control the Senate it may move out of the Senate,” she said.
The first hearing on this bill is Monday in Olympia.
