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Julie Schwartz Weber May 13th, 2009

Of late, our country and the rest of the world are confronting the realities of living with the possible global pandemic of swine flu. In America alone, as of May 4th, more than 1000 confirmed or probable cases of swine flu have been reported from 44 states. While the public health and medical considerations are rightfully getting a lot of air time, there are a host of work-family issues that emerge from this situation, including:

• Paid sick days:  The CDC, as well as state and local officials are asking workers and sick children suspected of contracting swine flu to stay home from work and school to prevent the possible spread of infection. However, with more than half of the country’s workers lacking a single paid sick day, and even more without time off to care for family members, including children, this request presents a potentially dire situation. Working families are forced to choose between adhering to a government public health mandate and staying home to care for their sick loved one or themselves or losing a paycheck — or even their job — by opting to stay home.Even if a particular employer or state has a paid sick days policy, or you happen to live in California or New Jersey, where paid family leave policies are being implemented, there are serious questions about whether these policies would provide coverage for healthy children whose school is closed due to a public health issue. Additionally, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act would likely not allow for even unpaid time off for most parents to care for children, as it mandates time off to care for a “seriously ill” child; here, most of the children staying home from school are well.
• Child care:   Under the direction of the President and public health officials, some schools have been closed due to children or staff within the school having swine flu.  While most recently the CDC recommends not closing schools “unless there is a magnitude of faculty or student absenteeism that interferes with the school’s ability to function”, the fact that a possible pandemic did — and can again — lead to the closing of schools, triggers questions about child care. With most caregivers in the workplace, and few employers providing paid sick days and/or paid leave, how can parents take time off from work to tend to their children in the event of no school?

• Telework: Numerous people have highlighted the importance of employees, especially Federal Government employees, to be able to continue operations in the face of catastrophes, including pandemics. In the event that workplaces are closed for public health reasons, telecommuting becomes a viable, if not the only, solution for continuing operations. Moreover, for parents of healthy children home from school, telecommuting becomes one way to continue working while simultaneously securing their child’s safety and care.

• Child Care , Medical Leave , Mothers and Fathers , Policy , Sick Leave , Telework , Workplace
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Judi Casey October 14th, 2008

Today marks the six-month anniversary of our Work and Family Blog and our 90th post! The Sloan Network bloggers have covered the gamut of topics from our first post on Paid Sick Leave to our most recent post on Take your Baby to Work. We have appreciated the opportunity to share our work-family thoughts with you, and we hope that the information has been useful to you in your work and lives. It’s great to hear your comments on our posts, so please, please give us as much feedback as possible.

In case you’ve missed these the first time, we have posted about our latest work-family Topic Pages, including Parents Caring for Children with Disabilities and Military Families. We have also covered a number of our existing focus areas in Family-Friendly Employers, Family Studies, Afterschool Care, Breastfeeding, Family Medical Leave Act, Gen Y, and those geared towards work, Overwork, Part-Time Work, Telework, Flexible Work Schedules in Small Businesses and Retirement.

A number of new issues have surfaced including an examination of the Pros and the Cons of a four-day work week. We reported on new trends for mothers, fathers, parents, grandparents and professors. We introduced an interactive entry with the Work-Life Quiz on Slide Share and linked to the highly useful Caregiver Database.

Politics is, of course, hot this year and we didn’t disappoint with a number of posts on the candidates, including work-family and work-life balance. We have blogged about our travels to many conferences including the National Conference of State Legislators and the WorldatWork Conference. We are privileged to have a number of guest bloggers, including A Better Balance: The Work & Family Legal Center, The Lattice Group, and The National Partnership for Women & Families. Thanks to all of the contributors!

And finally, we had 22 posts on What’s New in Work and Family, which covered over 100 articles and updates.

What’s coming up in the next six months from the Sloan Network? More exciting and relevant posts including a behind the scenes look at our social media efforts, including our new Facebook page. Thank you for reading our blog and do please continue to comment– we love your feedback. If you have suggestions for topics or are interested in guest blogging, please contact us.

• Afterschool Care , Breastfeeding , Dependent Care , Family Leave , Flexible Schedules , Gen X/Gen Y , Medical Leave , Mothers and Fathers , Older Workers , Overwork , Part-Time Work , Retirement , Sick Leave , Telework , Workplace
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Featured Guest Blogger October 6th, 2008

A dear friend of mine recently had a baby at just 27 weeks in her pregnancy; Olivia was due in October, but was born in July. We are happy to report that she is doing well, and that she should be home by the end of the year. The emotional rollercoaster of having a premature baby was just the beginning of a slew of challenges that my friends are facing now. Preemies bring up issues that I hadn’t thought of before— for example, their daughter will always be a bit older in time than she is in development. When she is one, she will likely not be walking as people might expect from a one-year-old. It makes complete sense, but again, I had never stopped to realize this challenge. Another issue that they faced was what to do about their maternity and paternity leaves, since they had a baby who was going to be in the NICU for over 5 months.

Given that 12% of births are premature (1 in 8 pregnancies), thousands of parents across the country will have to think about these questions: Should we take our leave after the birth of our child, or wait until she is ready to come home? Should we stagger our leaves so that one of us works while our baby is in the NICU, and the other works when she comes home? What do we do if we want to pump breast milk for our baby in the NICU? Will we be forced to leave our jobs due to our extended absence?

Talking through these issues with my friends left me speechless, as I couldn’t imagine having a baby in the NICU while facing financial and career overhauls. So, are workplaces supportive of this unique situation? In some cases yes, and in others, no; it’s up to the employer. In looking into this issue, I have discovered some workplaces that offer “compassionate leave” for such circumstances. Are governments helpful? Again, some are more than others. The EU is allotting additional maternity/paternity leave for premature births, but the United States does not.

We welcome your opinions or knowledge on this matter, as it is not something that the Network has examined yet, but it is an incredibly worthwhile topic.

• Breastfeeding , Child Care , Family Leave , Maternity/Paternity Leave , Medical Leave , Mothers and Fathers , Workplace
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Featured Guest Blogger June 4th, 2008

Thank you to Steffany Stern of the National Partnership for Women & Families for today’s guest blog entry. Please note that the views of our guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.

My fellow work and family advocates and I are trying not to count our chickens before they hatch, but these days we are more optimistic than we have been in a long time. It appears that after years of stalled progress, Congress may be poised to make real progress on work and family policy, a long neglected issue area that has left millions of families without badly-needed workplace protections. Following on the heels of the first-ever expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) since it was enacted in 1993—to allow military families a few extra weeks to provide care for seriously injured servicemembers—two noteworthy federal bills are making serious headway, and there are signs that other initiatives will start moving soon. When considered separately, these bills contain incremental changes. Collectively, they represent big steps towards the progress working families so desperately need.

Just last week, Congress took a historic stand for flight attendants, and voted to pass a much-needed FMLA fix by a landslide vote of 402 to 9. When the law was originally written, a loophole was unintentionally created that excluded airline flight crews, including flight attendants and pilots, because of the unique way their hours are calculated. The bill clarifies the FMLA to extend protections to flight crews, thousands of whom have never had access to the law.

Our Congressional allies also expect that a bill to provide paid parental leave for all federal employees will be brought to the House floor for a vote in upcoming weeks. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has proposed a bill to provide four weeks of paid parental leave for 2.7 million workers in the federal workforce, and set a standard for the rest of the country’s employers to follow.

In addition to these two bills, a number of innovative measures to address the real issues facing today’s working families have been introduced. These bills would provide paid family and medical leave for all workers, including those in the private sector (Reps. Stark, Miller, Woolsey and Sens. Dodd and Stevens); expand the FMLA to cover part-time workers (Rep. Baldwin); extend benefits (including FMLA rights) to domestic partners of federal employees (Rep. Maloney), and make sure victims of violent crime, including domestic violence and sexual assault, can access FMLA when they need to take time away from work to recover (Rep. Emanuel).

The introduction of these measures, and the prospects of actual progress for a few, signal that our elected leaders are beginning work to fulfill their promises to improve workplace policies to help working families at a time when many of us need it most. The chances for these bills will be far better if the public gets engaged. Our members of Congress need to hear that these are the issues that matter, and that we will hold them accountable for signing on in support of the bills and voting YES on each and every measure. Then, and only then, do we get to celebrate important progress for our working families.

• Family Leave , Leave , Maternity/Paternity Leave , Medical Leave , Policy , Sick Leave
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Chelsea Lettieri June 2nd, 2008

I had thought that employers were required to offer paid sick days, but this is not the case. A few states across the country have taken the initiative to require that employers offer paid sick days to employees, but nothing is set in stone just yet.

California, Massachusetts, and Ohio are in the process of pushing forward paid sick days legislation forward. Most recently, the California Assembly Labor and Employment Committee passed the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act (paid sick days legislation) by a vote of 6-2. If passed, California would be the first state to require that employers offer PAID sick days that can be used to recover from illness, care for a sick family member, or recover from domestic violence or sexual assault.

Low wage workers often cannot afford to take unpaid sick days. This may create a public health issue, especially if that worker was your child’s nurse or cafeteria server. Should ill employees be recovering at home rather than be sick in public? Many proponents of the legislation think so.

Opponents argue that offering paid sick days would only benefit employees and would create a burden for employers, especially small businesses. Small business owners feel they do not have the financial means and resources to cover the costs of providing paid sick days. However, a recent study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that if the bill becomes law, employers would save a total of $2.3 million annually, mainly from reduced costs of turnover. The time and resources used for advertising, interviewing, and training new staff members to replace departing workers far outweighs the cost of providing employees with paid sick days.

Do paid sick days make sense to you or not?

http://www.paidsickdaysca.org/

• Leave , Medical Leave , Policy , Sick Leave
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Featured Guest Blogger April 14th, 2008

New Jersey took one step further to becoming the third state in the country to allow employees paid leave to care for a sick relative or a new baby. Governor Corzine is set to pass the law.

The legislation would allow for 6 weeks of paid leave, up to $524 per week. The leave will be funded by employee contributions of approximately $33 per year.

Supporters of the legislation believe that this action will enable working families to balance their careers and their families with greater ease and less stress. They also make arguments that employees who are granted paid leave will make for more engaged workers. Opponents feel that this “new glass ceiling” will hurt small businesses in the state, create burdensome taxes for residents, and create discrimination practices in hiring of women of child-bearing ages.

The Sloan Network would love to hear your thoughts on this legislation - would you like to see this is your state? Why, or why not?

• Family Leave , Medical Leave , Policy , Sick Leave
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