Paid Parental Leave Should Be a Right of All Workers, Union Says

AFGE praises new bill allowing new parents to spend time with children without sacrificing their pay or position within their government agency

News provided by

American Federation of Government Employees

Sep 15, 2015, 05:08 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), representing 670,000 federal and D.C. Government employees across the U.S. and abroad, applauds the introduction of the Federal Employee Paid Parental Leave Act (FEPPLA) in the Senate by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

Transportation Security Officer Dawn Martinez (left) poses with her husband and three sons. The family recently welcomed their fourth child, which Martinez said was difficult financially without paid parental leave.

"I am proud to see Senators Schatz and Mikulski standing up for working families and introducing this critical legislation for working families," said AFGE National President J. David Cox, Sr. "Too often, our working mothers and fathers have to make the agonizing choice between spending time with their families or earning a paycheck. With this bill, civil servants across the country would be able to do both."

Like the House version of the bill (H.R. 532) introduced by paid parental leave champion Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the Senate FEPPLA bill recognizes the importance of supporting more than two million federal workers and their families by providing up to six weeks of paid leave to workers for the birth, adoption, or fostering of a child under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

"We cannot continue to hire the best and brightest to care for our veterans, secure our borders and keep our communities safe without offering benefits like these to attract those workers," Cox said.

The Senate bill expresses the intent of Congress that all federal workers be eligible for paid parental leave benefits, including the more than 45,000 Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) who screen millions of passengers and bags at our nation's airports each year. AFGE continues the call for application of paid parental leave benefits and all rights and benefits under Title 5 of the U.S. Code to TSOs, who currently lack statutory parental leave allowances that apply to most workers.

It is without question that the benefits of paid parental leave to children and families are enormous and long-lasting. Signaling the providence of family friendly leave policies, international corporations ranging from Nestle to Adobe recently increased the availability of paid parental leave to their employees. Senate passage of FEPPLA would allow the federal government and its workforce to demonstrate to all U.S. employers the strong economic and family benefit of paid parental leave.

To read more about the Federal Employee Paid Parental Leave Act, and what it could do for working families, visit our Family First page by clicking here.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 670,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees