After Washington legislators hit the snooze button on our state's troubled paid family leave program, delaying its implementation from 2009 to 2012 for want of funding, news comes from the other Washington about a reworked congressional proposal to mandate employers provide a minimum number of paid sick days per year. A similar concept was introduced in Washington in 2006 but didn't get a hearing.
The soon-to-be re-introduced "Healthy Families Act" would require workers each year to accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a total of 56 hours (7 days). This differs from a prior version of the bill which simply required all but the smallest employers to provide seven paid sick days per year without regard to accrual. The new version also includes time-off protections for victims of domestic violence, not unlike the mandate our Legislature passed in 2008.
Meanwhile, employers are helping to shape the debate. The Society for Human Resource Management(SHRM), for instance, sent a letter to all U.S. senators and representatives on May 7, 2009, announcing a set of principlesit would like to see applied to federal leave policy, including:
· Encourage employers to offer uniform and coordinated paid leave.
· Create administrative and compliance incentives for employers who meet the leave standard.
· Provide certainty, predictability and accountability for employers and employees.
· Allow for different work environments, industries and organizational size.
This focus on flexibility and incentive rather than one-size-fits-all mandate has been an animating theme in AWB's legislative objectives on workplace leave policy (e.g., in 2007 and 2009). Expect that same focus to color the national debate as it's teed up this summer in DC.
