HD26 - Parental Leave Policy for State Employees
Executive Summary: House Joint Resolution (HJR) 197 directed the Governor's Personnel Advisory Board to determine the desirability and feasibility of implementing a parental leave policy for state employees. (*) Background A parental leave policy is one which explicitly allows leave to be taken for maternity, paternity, and adoption reasons. While the state does not have a policy exclusively addressing parental leave, employees are provided paid leave for any reason (including parental) through the use of their accrued annual leave balances and, to a limited extent, through the use of their accrued sick leave balances. In addition, when employees have insufficient paid leave balances to cover necessary absences, current policies allow managers to grant unpaid leaves of absence. This can be done by placing employees on either unconditional or conditional leave without pay. Employees placed on unconditional leave are guaranteed the right to return to their former positions at the conclusion of the absence. Under conditional leave without pay, employees are not guaranteed the right to return to their former positions, and agencies may fill the positions as they determine the need. Requests for unpaid leave are granted at the discretion of each agency on a case-by-case basis, potentially resulting in inconsistent treatment among state employees. Accordingly, some employees with insufficient leave balances who are not granted unpaid leave, but who nonetheless are required or choose to stop working for parental reasons, could lose their jobs. By evaluating: (1) the costs associated with replacing employees who take leaves of absence for parental reasons, (2) the parental leave policies of other employers, and (3) the potential effects on employees of implementing a parental leave policy in the Commonwealth, this study seeks to determine whether a parental leave policy "could help to alleviate some of the concerns of parents who choose to take a leave of absence from their jobs." HJR (197) Evaluation Costs of permanent replacements. The recruitment, hiring, and training costs associated with employing full-time classified replacements for employees who resign from state service for parental reasons was estimated to be approximately $2,263 per replacement. Cost of temporary replacements. The wages for a temporary replacement for an employee taking 30 work days (i.e., six weeks) of parental leave was estimated to be $1,829. This amount is slightly less than the cost to replace permanently the classified employee who resigns for parental reasons. Employers' policies. Public and private sector employers were surveyed to identify their current parental leave policies. Survey responses showed that most employers (60%), like Virginia, have not implemented policies exclusively addressing parental leave. Potential effects on employees of implementing a parental leave policy. Randomly-selected employees were surveyed to ascertain the potential effects of implementing a parental leave policy on productivity, morale, and the desire to stay in state service. Approximately 50% of the survey respondents reported that implementing a formal parental leave policy would increase their morale and desire to stay in state service. Conclusion Less than 10% of the employees responding to the survey reported taking paid leave for parental reasons, and less than 2% reported taking unpaid leave for parental reasons. Thus, the survey results indicated little need to modify the state's current paid leave policies to provide additional leave that could be used for parental reasons. However, because unpaid leave is granted at the discretion of each agency and each agency determines whether unpaid leave will be unconditional or conditional, there may be inconsistencies in the way unpaid leave is granted. It is recommended, therefore, that the state's current leave without pay policy be revised to provide unconditional leave without pay for maximum periods of 30 work days (i.e., six weeks) to all employees requesting unpaid leave for parental reasons. Exceptions to this policy may be granted where it is demonstrated that a six-week unpaid leave of absence for a particular employee would substantially impair the agency's operations. It is believed that revising the leave without pay policy will reduce potential inconsistencies resulting from agencies discretionary administration of unpaid leaves, and enhance job security for state employees. _____________________________________ (*) Pursuant to discussions with the patron of HJR 197, information also was gathered to determine the feasibility of providing family-related leave for reasons other than parental. As used in this context, family-related leave would include absences from work to care for a sick child or other sick family member, to provide care for aging parents (elder care), or to bereave the death of a family member. The information gathered is set out in Appendix D. |
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