 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Parent's Dilemma: My Paycheck or My Sick Child?
When sick leave and vacation time are used up at work, many parents of chronically ill children must choose between earning a living and caring for the child. Some elected officials are calling for a federal law that forces companies to offer paid leave for parents of sick children. But business leaders say the law would be disastrous for companies and consumers alike. The Cure Our Children Foundation first explores this complex problem, then offers a possible solution that could be good for families and businesses: shared sick leave.
Shared sick leave is a means for a company's employees to transfer some of their vacation and/or sick leave to a fellow employee with a chronically or critically ill child. The program protects employees who could suffer termination or loss of pay because of extended or frequent absences from work. Working parents may take this article to company owners and/or managers to educate them on the need for such a program in their workplace. An employer may use the information below to find out how to implement the program at little or no cost to the company.
by Barbara Martin,
http://www.barbaramartin.net/
with contributions by Barry Sugarman,
B.S.ENGR., President, The Cure Our Children Foundation, and
Dr. Lainie Sugarman, Vice President, The Cure Our
Children Foundation
The Debate
"I have a chronically ill child--cancer. Why is it that...I cannot get any time off for a terminally ill child?"
This parent's plea, reported on the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada Web site 1 as part of a survey on balancing home life and work, echoes an agonizing choice many parents here in the United States also face: My paycheck or my sick child?
It's a plea that Dr. Jody Heymann, 2 associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health 3 and Harvard Medical School and founding chair of the Initiative on Work, Family, and Democracy, 4 has heard all too often. In an exclusive interview with The Cure Our Children Foundation, Dr. Heymann talked about two mothers she had interviewed for a research project. Both were caring for children with asthma, "a frequent health problem in the United States," she pointed out.
One mother had sent her preschooler to daycare, even though
the little girl was experiencing breathing problems, because the mother was
worried about losing her job. The child's condition worsened as the day wore on.
"The childcare provider just thought the child was being cranky, but the child
was in serious respiratory distress," Dr. Heymann said. "She ended up in the
hospital for a week" The hospitalization could have been avoided, she said, if
the mother could have stayed home with her child because the mother would have
recognized that the child was in distress.
Another mom—one who put her child ahead of her job—ultimately got fired. Her child was in the hospital, and she and the child's grandmother took turns staying in the hospital room. Still, the mother sometimes missed work, and her employer gave her an ultimatum. "The employer of the mother says you can't take leave for this, and the mother loses her job," Dr. Heymann said. These women faced "really untenable choices. That, I think, is multiplied many fold for the folks who have (to deal with) even more serious, long-term, life-threatening diseases."
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 5 ensures that an employee can take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave in any given twelve-month period to care for a seriously ill parent, spouse, or child. But the law is an imperfect solution, labor leaders and family advocates such as Dr. Heymann say, because it applies only to companies with fifty or more employees. 6 This means that about forty percent of private-sector workers are not covered under the law. 7
Even among those workers who are eligible, many who need the leave cannot take it because they simply can't afford to give up their pay. One in ten who take leave actually end up on public assistance, according to an article in The Boston Globe. The article goes on to say that "86 million Americans don't have a single paid sick day that can be used to care for their kids or their parents." 8
"The time off that we get is not reflective of the families that we are today," Nikki Dones, program associate with the nonprofit advocacy group Labor Project for Working Families 9, told The Cure Our Children Foundation in a telephone interview. "We have elderly people to care for. We have children to care for. But there’s no federal law that says you have to give people sick time...
"I know in California, we have a law that says you can use up to half your sick leave a year to care for family members, but that’s only California. It varies from state to state (and) it's only if you are given leave by your employer." (For a complete state-to-state comparison of such legislation compiled by the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures 10, go to http://www.ncsl.org/programs/employ/fmlachart.htm or call the Washington office at 202-624-5400.)
Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Connecticut) and Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) are pushing a bill called the Healthy Families Act 11 that would mandate seven days of paid sick leave in companies of fifteen employees or more. Employees would be allowed to use these days for themselves or to take care of a family member.
Dr. Heymann feels the measure is overdue. "We know that if a family has paid leave--a parent does--they’re five times as likely to be able to care for their child when they’re sick," she said. "So we know it makes an enormous difference. (And) we know that one hundred and thirty-nine other countries, at least, are already doing it—guaranteeing this basic right. Why haven’t we yet achieved it for the United States?"
But business leaders oppose the measure, saying it would be disastrous, especially for small companies, and that added costs would ultimately be passed on to the consumer.
No one at the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners 12 returned phone calls from The Cure Our Children Foundation, but the association has posted this warning on its Web site:
A number of problems with this purposed legislation have already been identified. On the whole, the entire structure of a company will be compromised. Continuing problems with the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 predict imminent difficulties with the more invasive paid leave proposals. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has found the Family Medical Leave Act problematic citing the following list of impediments employers contend with when an employee requests leave:
Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran (D-Boston) has argued that it is possible to support business and the family at the same time. At a conference on the subject in Boston in 2002, he proposed a bill that would provide tax credits for businesses that allowed some forms of family friendly leave. 13
"If you layer another cost onto business ... economic opportunity, which we hope to provide for one and all, will be foreclosed or limited in some fashion," he warned.
Donated Leave
While the clamor grows on both sides of this emotional issue, federal employees and university employees in many states already enjoy extended paid leave through a shared leave program, also known as a donated leave pool.
Provisions for shared leave have been in place for federal workers for more than a decade. 14 The U. S. Office of Personnel Management 15 offers a number of case studies 16 on its Web site to illustrate its policies. Below are two such case studies:
The state of New Jersey enacted similar provisions in 1993, Florence Johnson, assistant director of human resources at the College of New Jersey 17 told The Cure Our Children Foundation.
Employees grappling with a health crisis or a serious illness in the family must first use up their own accrued leave; then they can apply for donated leave, provided they have worked for a year at the college, haven't been disciplined for excessive absenteeism or tardiness, and can offer medical verification, she said. When the need arises, a call goes out to employees for donations. "Other employees donate to that particular employee," Ms. Johnson explained.
The employee who needs the extra leave time can apply for a maximum of 180 days. Donors may give up to ten days. "It's just out of the goodness of their hearts," she said. "Employees are glad to donate."
While the College of New Jersey asks employees to donate time for a particular person, Rutgers University 18, also in New Jersey, takes a different approach.
Benefits Administration Manager Brenda Lewis told Cure Our Children that Rutgers' shared leave program was relatively new, having been adopted in January 2004. The time off is not as generous--Rutgers employees get a month. "We weren't able to make it any longer," Ms. Lewis said. "We couldn’t do that. The state’s benefit is a lot more liberal than ours...but we did see the need for compassionate need."
Rutgers' program 19, 20 also only allows donations into a pool, not to an individual. That's "more fair and easier to administer," Ms. Lewis said. "What if a person needed it and no one was able to donate? This way, it’s pretty much guaranteed the days will be available in the pool for someone who needs it."
Surprisingly, both women reported that very few people had
needed to take advantage of the leave pool, and Ms. Lewis said that the
university had not found even one case of employee abuse of the program. "Well,
they really can’t," she said, "because we do ask for medical documentation from
their doctors and their department will turn it on and will turn it off, based
on the time I’ve approved. If there’s any abuse, it would be because they got a
fraudulent doctor’s statement, and I don’t think that has happened."
The benefit to employees is obvious, but Ms. Lewis believes the university also gains a benefit, "a very important one," she said. "It does increase the morale among employees."
It would seem that donated leave would serve both families and businesses, small businesses in particular. So why hasn't the concept of donated or shared leave caught on in the private sector?
For one thing, it's an idea that is apparently unfamiliar to business leaders. The Cure Our Children Foundation contacted or attempted to contact more than a dozen representatives of agencies and organizations serving as advocates for female entrepreneurs and small businesses, including six from the federal Small Business Administration 21. Not one could or would comment on donated leave time. Several sited a lack of knowledge or research on the subject; one woman at a regional office said she had never heard of shared leave time.
Advocates say it's time for working parents to educate their employers on such programs, emphasizing benefits to the company, such as increased morale and company loyalty among employees.
"I think it creates a good work morale," Ms. Johnson said. "The
employees feel good in that they’re helping another employee that needs help.
Some people lose sick leave when they retire, so it does give them a chance to
put their sick leave to use."
References and Contact Information:
1) Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), HRSDC Communications Branch, 140 Promenade du Portage, Place du Portage, Phase IV, 12th Floor, Gatineau, Québec K1A 0J9; phone: (819) 994-5559; E-mail: no e-mail address given on Web site.
2) Dr. Jody Heymann, associate professor of Society, Human Development, and Health, Harvard University, Kresge Building, 7th Floor, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115; Phone: 617-432-3914; Fax: 617-432-3123; E-mail: jheymann@hsph.harvard.edu
3) Harvard School of Public Health, Patricia Lavoie, Department of
Society, Human Development, and Health, 677 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA
02115, Phone: 617-432-3762; Fax: 617-432-3755; E-mail: tlavoie@hsph.harvard.edu
4) The Project on Global Working Families, Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Behavior, 677 Huntington Ave, 7th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; Phone: 617-432-3762; Fax: 617-432-3123; Email: globalworkingfamilies@hsph.harvard.edu
6) U.S. Department of Labor, Text of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, Public Law 103-3
8) Boston Globe, "An epidemic of presenteeism," Ellen Goodman, February 6, 2005
9) Labor Project for Working Families, 2521 Channing Way, # 5555,
Berkeley, CA 94720; Phone: 510-643-7088;
Fax: 510-642-6432; E-mail: lpwf@berkeley.edu
10) National Conference of State Legislatures, 444 North Capitol Street, N.W., Suite 515, Washington, D.C. 20001. Phone: 202-624-5400; Fax: 202-737-1069; E-mail: justin.marks@ncsl.org
12) The New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners, 127 US Highway 206 South, Suite 28, Hamilton, NJ 08610; Phone: 609-581-2121; Fax: 609-581-6749; E-mail: njawbo@njawbo.org
13) Harvard University Gazette, "Sharing the cost of family leave," Beth Potier, May 2, 2002
14) Washington Post, "Family thanks those who donated leave," Stephen Barr, November 25, 2004
18) Rutgers University, 56 Bevier Road, Piscataway, N.J. 08854, Phone: 732-445-3020; Fax: 732-445-3407
19) Rutgers University, Compassionate Leave Program, Online Policies
20) Rutgers University, Compassionate Leave Program, Online FAQs
21) United States Small Business Administration, 409 Third Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20416; Phone: 1-800-U-ASK-SBA. Note: The SBA has offices in each state. To find the office in your state, click on the link above or call the Washington headquarters.
Implementing Shared Sick Leave in Your Workplace
Whether you are a business owner or an hourly employee, establishing a shared leave program in your workplace isn't nearly as complicated as you might imagine.
If you are a working parent who sees the need for such a program, simply take the information on this page, along with the model policy and forms, to your human resources department or, if your company has no human resources department, to your supervisor, the company president, the owner--whomever you believe might be willing to listen to your concerns. Perhaps a group of employees, even, could approach the appropriate person in authority.
If you are the owner or manager of
a company, you might benefit even more than employees because this program is
voluntary and doesn't come with complicated laws and obligations, as the Healthy
Families Act undoubtedly would. Either private companies will address the need
for leave time among working parents, as so many universities and government
institutions have, or the federal government will step in eventually with a
mandate. Look over the information on this page with an open mind. You'll find
that, at little or no added cost to your company, you can implement a shared
leave program that would:
* improve your image in the
community;
* boost employee morale and
loyalty;
* decrease employee turnover, and therefore reduce recruiting
and training costs.
Perhaps the most important reason of all, though, is simply this: It's the right thing
to do. Adopt our model policy as it is or customize it to suit your company's
needs.
by Barbara Martin,
http://www.barbaramartin.net/
with contributions by Barry Sugarman,
B.S.ENGR., President, The Cure Our Children Foundation, and
Dr. Lainie Sugarman, Vice President, The Cure Our
Children Foundation
Business owners and managers who oppose federally mandated paid leave for parents of sick children should perhaps consider implementing a voluntary sick leave pool. Employers who have done so report better morale among employees, and certainly shared leave is less costly than the proposed Healthy Families Act and similar measures, since existing sick leave benefits are not increased, only shifted from one employee to another.
A random survey of shared sick leave policies shows they are seldom "cookie cutter" documents. An employer starts with the basic concept, then customizes it to maximize benefits for employees and minimize any possible negative impact on the company. Among employers studied by The Cure Our Children Foundation, there were three basic policy configurations, though the terms and definitions used varied widely. Below are the basic concepts we found:
1. The shared leave bank: Employees join the pool by donating a minimum number of hours from their accrued leave time, usually--but not always--vacation time or personal days. Withdrawals sometimes continue on a regular basis, with an employee's consent. (We found minimums from one hour to one day.) If the employee or his/her family experiences a catastrophic injury or illness, the employee can draw from the pool.
2. The shared leave pool: Employees donate leave time into a shared pool, similar to the bank described above, but "membership" is not required and requests are examined individually.
3. Transferred leave time: Employees donate to a specific co-worker at the time of need at the request of a company official, usually a human resources director. Some employers publicize the recipient's name; some insist on confidentiality. A human resources official at Rutgers University felt that confidentiality was a necessity because if a worker learned that his or her supervisor was asking for donations, that worker might feel pressured into participating.
In some cases, such as Cornell University's Catastrophic Leave Policy, guidelines are "broadly defined" with the intent of giving "colleges and units the flexibility to adapt such guidelines to fit their respective organizational needs." Rutgers University takes the opposite approach, making policies as specific as possible to ensure that every case is judged on exactly the same criteria.. Employers generally leave the final approval or rejection of an employee's application to a supervisor, a human resources director, or an appointed panel.
Some employers allow time to be donated from employees' accrued sick or vacation leave; others require that time be donated from vacation leave only. Some require that donations come from within the recipient's department while others encourage donations from any and all departments.
Cornell University adds a disclaimer to its policy, reminding employees: "This program is not an additional leave entitlement or benefit, but rather a means of allowing staff in Cornell University colleges/units to assist colleagues in need."
If a recipient does not use all the vacation time, an employer may choose to return the excess time to donors, but in most cases, donations are irrevocable. Employees are usually required to keep a minimum number of hours for their own needs, usually a week to two weeks. Donations are sometimes not transferred hour for hour because of salary differences, but some employers find it simpler to transfer leave by time and not adjust for salary.
Below are brief descriptions of a handful of existing programs to help you begin to formulate your own. Please note: Some requirements may not be listed in the tables below and some definitions or explanations may not be comprehensive. The table is meant to provide "at a glance" information only. The links that follow will instruct you on how to get more information from each employer listed.
Policies: Recipients
| Employer: | Eligibility requirements: | Qualifying emergency: | Other requirements: | Immediate family defined: | Maximum leave time | Leave donated to a named recipient? |
| 1. Rutgers University | One year's employment; no record of disciplinary problems or abuse of sick leave | Catastrophic health condition for employee or employee's immediate family member | All accrued leave time must be exhausted; documentation from doctor required | Spouse, same sex sole domestic partner, child, parent, and parent-in-law | 30 days in one year | No |
| 2. College of New Jersey | One year's employment; no record of absenteeism or tardiness | Catastrophic health condition for employee or employee's immediate family member; organ donation | All accrued leave time must be exhausted; documentation from doctor required | Doesn't specify | 180 days in one year | Yes |
| 3. Mississippi State University | One year's employment, during which the employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours. | Chronic illnesses or injuries, such as cancer or major surgery, which result in intermittent absences from work and require long recuperation periods may qualify | All accrued leave time must be exhausted; documentation from doctor required | Spouse, parent, stepparent, sibling, child or stepchild | 90 days in one year | Yes |
| 4. William Patterson University | One year's employment | Catastrophic health condition for employee or employee's immediate family member | All leave time
must be exhausted; doctor's verification required. An employee receiving
donated leave shall not receive temporary disability benefits for the same
period he/she is paid wages from donated sick and/or vacation
leave.
|
Doesn't specify | 180 days lifetime maximum | Yes |
| 5. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory | All Career Indefinite and Flexible Term employees are eligible to apply, except those who work on an indeterminate time basis | Serious illness or injury that is expected to incapacitate the employee or the employee’s family member and which creates a financial hardship to the employee due to exhausted leave credits, i.e., sick leave and vacation leave | Employee shall first use any leave credits she/he accrues prior to using donated time; doctor's verification required | Employee’s spouse, parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild; in-laws and step-relatives; other persons residing in the employee’s household for whom there is a personal obligation | Doesn't specify | Yes |
| 6. U.S.
Dept. of Justice |
Does not specify | A
medical emergency -- i.e., a medical condition
(including a medical emergency affecting a family member) that is likely
to require prolonged absence from work and to result in a substantial loss
of income because of the unavailability of paid leave |
Employee must have exhausted all available sick and annual leave and be facing at least three days of Leave Without Pay (LWOP); doctor's verification required. An appointed board reviews each request for leave. Approved employees must provide monthly updated medical documentation. | Does not specify | No limit | Recipients decide whether they want their names publicized |
| 7. Cornell University | One year's employment; no record of absenteeism or tardiness | Each case is evaluated by Human Resources | Medical verification may be required; all applicable vacation, health care leave, personal leave and holiday compensatory time (if any) must be exhausted before receipt of donated leave | Spouse, same-sex partner, parent/legal guardian, or child (including biological, adopted, foster, and stepchild) | Does not specify | No |
| 8. Naval Post Graduate School | In order to participate in the leave bank program, an employee must have donated to the bank and become a member | A personal or family medical emergency that places the employee on a non-pay status for at least 24 hours | Medical documentation | Does not specify | Does not specify | Yes for the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program; no for the leave bank |
| 9.North Dakota State University | Non-temporary, non-probationary employees with over six months of continuous service with the state; university president has final approval. | Illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that is
of an extraordinary or severe nature |
Employee has exhausted or will exhaust, all annual leave, applicable
sick leave, and compensatory time off
|
Spouse, child, stepchild, grandchild, grandparent, stepparent, parent, household members | 4 months in one year | Yes |
| 10. UCSF | Regular status career or non-faculty academic employee; probationary period must be completed | Serious illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that is present for a minimum of seven calendar days | Employee must
be facing a loss of income after exhausting all paid leave accruals,
and the employee cannot be receiving payment of temporary disability
benefits |
Spouse,
domestic partner with whom the employee has executed a domestic
partnership agreement, parent, child, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild;
in-laws and step-relatives; and other persons residing in the employee's
household |
6 months in one year; accrued vacation credits shall be transferred hour for hour, regardless of differing pay scales | Yes |
1) Rutgers University, 56 Bevier Road, Piscataway, N.J. 08854, Phone: 732-445-3020; Fax: 732-445-3407
2)
4) William Patterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, New Jersey 07470; Phone: 973-720-2000
5) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue • Livermore, CA 94550; Phone 925-422-4599; Fax: 925-423-2943; E-mail: pao@llnl.gov
6) http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/ps/guiobdlvtransfer.htm
8) Naval Postgraduate School, 1 University Circle, Monterey, CA 9394; Phone: 831-656-2441
9) North Dakota State University, 1301 12th Avenue North, Fargo, N.D. 58105; Phone: 1-800-488-NDSU; E-mail: NDSU.Policy.Manual@ndsu.nodak.edu
10) University of California San Francisco
National Model Donated Sick Leave Policy
The Cure Our Children Foundation has compared aspects of more than two dozen plans and developed a model shared leave pool policy that we believe is the simplest and easiest for a company to implement but one that still offers important benefits to employees. We have chosen the voluntary sick leave pool approach, and we believe that keeping recipients and donors anonymous is the most even-handed and fair choice.
In our model program, a company representative distributes a call for donations of time, without naming the recipient, and employees with adequate accrued leave time (sick, personal and/or vacation) respond with donations, which are transferred to a qualified recipient.
Only company owners and managers can decide whether to transfer the donations hour for hour without regard for salary differences or to convert the donated time into money based on the donor's salary and then disperse it at the rate of an applicant's salary. (In other words, if the donor makes $5 an hour and the recipient makes $10 an hour, the company may decide to count a donation of a full day as four hours, based on the recipient's pay.) It seems likely that taking salary into account would be more attractive to many companies, since they literally would not pay an extra dime. The institutions The Cure Our Children Foundation studied seemed evenly divided in their preferences on this point. A few handled the problem by mandating that hourly employees donate only to fellow hourly employees, and managers or salaried individuals were similarly restricted, thus making hour-for-hour exchanges more even financially . Obviously, though, that approach would not work in a very small company. The bottom line, in the foundation's estimation, is this: Whether an employer is willing to transfer donated leave time hour for hour, regardless of salary, or prefers to take into account differences in pay, working parents and their children benefit tremendously. It is not a point worth haggling over.
Qualifications in our sample policy are basic and fair, we believe, and not overly broad or extravagant. Unused leave time is kept in the pool for the next qualified recipient; it is not refunded to donors.
To download our customizable model policy, clink on the link below and fill in the blanks or rewrite the policy to suit your company's needs. For a look at real policies implemented at agencies and organizations across the country, follow the links near the bottom of this page or contact the agencies and organizations directly at the addresses and phone numbers supplied.
Click the links below for Microsoft Word Model Donated Sick Leave Program Documents:
Examples of Donor Forms:
Radford University, East Main St., Radford, Va. 24142; Phone: 540-831-5000
Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028; Phone: 856.256.4000
Baylor University, Baylor University, Waco, Texas 76798; Phone: 1-800-BAYLOR-U
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; Phone: (607)254-4636; Fax: (607)255-5396
University of California Santa Cruz; 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 ; Phone: 831-459-2009
Texas A&M, 200 Technology Way, College Station, Texas 77845-3424; Phone: 979-458-7700
Examples of Recipient Forms:
Rowan University, 201 Mullica Hill Road • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028; Phone: 856.256.4000Baylor University, Baylor University, Waco, Texas 76798; Phone: 1-800-BAYLOR-U
University of California Santa Cruz; 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 ; Phone: 831-459-2009
Calls for Leave Donations:
University of California San Diego, Human Resources Department,
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0922;
Phone: 858-822-4112; E-mail:hr@ucsd.edu
University of
California Santa Cruz; 1156 High Street, Santa
Cruz, CA 95064 ; Phone: 831-459-2009
Policies Developed and Implemented by Other
Agencies and Universities:
Radford University, East Main St., Radford, Va. 24142; Phone: 540-831-5000
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599; Phone: 919-962-2211
UC Davis Health System, 2315 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817, Phone: 916-734-2011
Texas A&M, 200 Technology Way, College Station, Texas 77845-3424; Phone: 979-458-7700
Warmest Regards....Barry Sugarman, B.S.ENGR.,
President
The Cure Our Children Foundation
mailto:barry@cureourchildren.org
http://www.cureourchildren.org
Phone:
310-355-6046
Fax: 310-454-9592
This site last updated on July 19, 2005
Disclaimer: This plan has been developed in conjunction with a California employment attorney; however, all employers interested in implementing a Donated Leave Plan should have their own attorneys review it for the purpose of making any modifications necessary to suit their business purposes and otherwise ensuring that it complies with their respective state and local laws or any applicable federal law or collective bargaining agreements. This original research article has been written for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical or legal advice or opinions, or financial advice or opinions. If you need legal advice or opinions, please consult your attorney. If you need medical advice, please consult your doctor. If you need financial advice, consult a qualified accountant.
