New parents could get 6 weeks paid leave if county changes rules

More than two decades ago, Richard Elías and his wife brought home their adopted 1-day-old daughter. Four days later, Elías had to go back to work.

Elías says he wishes he could have spent six weeks with their new daughter.

Now Elías is backing a labor union’s proposal to give all county employees who become parents — both moms and dads — six weeks of paid family leave. He says other workers will pick up the slack when an eligible county employee takes leave.

The plan set to be heard today by the Board of Supervisors would cost taxpayers at least $1.1 million a year when the county hires temp workers or pays overtime to workers filling in for someone on leave, said County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry.

Currently, county employees who give birth or adopt are entitled to combine vacation, sick and catastrophic leave to care for their child, Huckelberry said. Once that time runs out, they can take unpaid time off. He said the county has to hire a temporary employee — and pay for hiring, training and their wages — or delegate the employee’s duties to other staff members and pay for overtime.

The benefits of parental leave outweigh the disadvantages, said Marcia Ortega, a Pima County employee and a chapter vice chair of the Service Employees International Union.

Having a child is “hard economically and emotionally,” she said. “Taking unpaid parental leave is expensive and challenging.”

Increasing paid parental leave would result in higher worker retention, she said.

When women have paid parental leave options, they are 93 percent more likely to go back to work at the same job than those who weren’t offered paid parental leave, according to a study from the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University.

Ortega said taking paid parental leave when she had a child gave her the time to get used to her new role as a mother.

County staff is working together with labor-union representatives to adopt a policy that’s both affordable and accommodating.

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Art Mendoza, the president of the Service Employees International Union in Pima County, also said he believes the county should update its policy to provide paid parental leave to employees.

“I’m pretty happy with where the discussion has gone,” said Art Mendoza, president of the union backing the measure. “I think this policy just makes sense.”

One barrier facing the plan is the expense, Mendoza said.

Providing the parental leave benefit recommended by SEIU would cost the county $1.1 to $1.6 million annually, up from about $600,000 a year now, Huckelberry said.

Elías disagrees.

“It’s not going to increase the budget at all,” Elías said. “What happens when an employee takes time off? The other employees take up the slack and get the work accomplished.”

Huckelberry said this isn’t actually how the proposal has been written.

“If you were to grant paid parental leave, but that leave cannot be filled, then there wouldn’t be an increase in cost,” Huckelberry said. “But that was never specified in the proposal.”

Supervisor Ally Miller said she doesn’t think the increase in benefits can be financially justified.

“Pima County can’t afford to pay the (Sheriff’s) deputies the increase they were promised 8 years ago,” Miller said. “If we aren’t going to address that issue, we shouldn’t be taking on other issues.”