Sweeney Holds Roundtable on Plan to Expand Paid Leave; Small Business Not Invited
Senator Sweeney held a roundtable discussion yesterday to promote his paid leave insurance expansion bill, but par for the course small business wasn’t asked to weigh in. The recently introduced bill S3085 would, among other things, increase the amount of the weekly benefit and lengthen the leave time under the insurance program currently in place.
NFIB is actively balloting our members in order to determine the position we’ll take on the issue- please VOTE HERE if you haven’t already.
Once the votes are in, we’ll keep you updated on the status of the bill.
The proposal would:
– Increase the maximum number of weeks of leave from 6 to 12 weeks
– Increase intermittent leave from 42 days to 84 days
– Allow for intermittent leave for bonding with a newborn or an adopted child
– Expand the amount that covered individuals would collect in benefits
– Increase the weekly cap for benefits from the current $633 to up to $932 per week, depending on the claimant’s income
– Expand the family members that individuals covered under the law may receive paid benefits to include siblings, grandparents, grandchildren and parents- in-law. Currently, family leave benefits are only available to care for children, spouses, domestic partners, civil union partners or parents of covered individuals
– Allow for leave to be taken to care for a family member who has been a victim of an incident of domestic violence or a sexually violent offense
– Extend leave benefits to parents that have a child through the use of a surrogate
– Strengthen protections for program participants by specifying that an employer may not discharge, harass, threaten, discriminate or retaliate against an employee with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on the basis that the employee took or requested leave to which the employee was entitled
– Allows an employee or former employee to institute a civil action in the Superior Court in the case of a violation of the bill’s anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation provisions.