In Focus: Sick Days and Family Medical Leave
Mar 01, 2013 | Permalink »
New Tool for Job Quality Advocates: A Primer on Business Certifications
Today, CLASP and its partner, the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), released a new tool for job quality advocates, including advocates for earned sick days and paid family leave. The jointly produced brief provides advocates with a primer on the nuts and bolts of the business certification movement and suggests ways to foster fruitful relationships between the movement and campaigns for improved job quality, such as earned sick days campaigns.
Increasingly, businesses are seeking out certifications as means to assess their impact and verify that their practices are consistent with their values. Such certifications — which assess practices regarding environmental sustainability, living wages, paid sick days, flexible schedules, etc. — help businesses to maintain a high level of commitment to ethical practices and allow them to showcase this commitment to consumers and the public. In addition, a growing number of states have adopted “benefit corporation” legislation, which promotes and legally protects socially responsible businesses, many of which have attained certifications.
For job quality advocates, who are increasingly recognizing the crucial role of business support in successful campaigns, both certifying organizations and certified businesses can be valuable partners. Be sure to read the brief and follow up with ASBC in order to learn more.
Feb 27, 2013 | Permalink »
Implementing Earned Sick Days Laws: Learning from Seattle's Experience
Advocates in Seattle fought hard to build the support necessary to pass the city’s Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) Ordinance. But the hard work did not end when the law passed in September 2011. Once the ink on Seattle’s ordinance had dried, the process of implementing the law began.
The task of implementation in Seattle fell to the city’s Office for Civil Rights (SOCR). SOCR’s small but energetic staff has approached the complex job with a drive that not only reflects a commitment to ensuring that the law protects the rights of Seattle’s workers, but also a desire to listen carefully to business concerns about the law. The city has launched a thoughtful and creative implementation and outreach strategy that has been attentive to business needs, spread the word about the law to diverse groups of Seattle workers and employers, and provided an unparalleled level of technical assistance to employers seeking to comply with the law.
Elliott Bronstein, SOCR’s Public Information Coordinator, explains, “The thing that I’m proudest of is our work with employers to answer their questions, to make this as intelligible to them as possible, and to listen closely to their concerns during the rule drafting process.” By taking a constructive approach, Seattle has brought employers on board, helping to ensure that employees are receiving the paid sick and safe time they have earned.
CLASP spoke with SOCR staff to better understand the implementation process. Today, CLASP is releasing an issue brief that draws upon Seattle’s experience to delineate best practices for implementing such laws. It is the first in a series of implementation briefs that draw on the experiences of jurisdictions that have passed earned sick days laws. Watch for additional briefs in the coming weeks, as well as a summary of best practices from all jurisdictions.
Momentum for earned sick days laws is building around the country, with active campaigns in several cities and states. As more sick days laws pass, more governments will face the challenging task of implementing these laws. Those facing this task have much to learn from Seattle’s implementation work.
Read the brief >>
Feb 13, 2013 | Permalink »
FMLA: 20 Years of Building Bonds Between Babies and Parents, Time Now For Paid Leave!
Last week marked the twentieth anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which has offered millions of workers access to up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. More than 100 million workers have accessed this leave to take care of newborns, family members and themselves. As we celebrate FMLA 20 years later, we are also reminded of how far the U.S. still has to go in offering paid leave and fully supporting the needs of children and families.
While the FMLA has set an important precedent for parental leave, the U.S. remains the only industrialized nation without a national paid family leave program that helps support workers when they need time off to care for a new baby, sick family member, or themselves. A lack of a paid family leave policy has left workers struggling to meet the needs and expectations of both work and family. Low-income people in particular often work in jobs that provide few family-support benefits, making the demands of family and job even more challenging to meet.
The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) zeroes in on the effects of maternal employment and parental leave policies on "child health, child cognitive and emotional development, maternal health, and the health of parental relationships." NCCP's brief highlights research findings showing that mothers who take paid family leave are more likely to breastfeed for longer and at higher rates, which leads to positive health outcomes for both child and mother. Additionally, paid family leave policies are associated with lower infant and child mortality rates, higher birth weight, more well-baby doctors' visits, and complete immunizations. More parental time with babies also has positive social and cognitive benefits for children including higher cognitive scores, better bonding with parents, and increased parental responsiveness to child's cues. Moms who receive paid family leave show lower rates of depression, and more complete physical recovery from childbirth.