SYRACUSE — The City of Syracuse is providing city employees working in non-represented positions with 12 weeks of paid leave, which they can use for a new birth, adoption, or foster placement. The new policy, which took effect Dec. 1, is the “first step in attempting to improve parental-leave benefits for city workers,” the office […]
SYRACUSE — The City of Syracuse is providing city employees working in non-represented positions with 12 weeks of paid leave, which they can use for a new birth, adoption, or foster placement.
The new policy, which took effect Dec. 1, is the “first step in attempting to improve parental-leave benefits for city workers,” the office of Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said in a Nov. 28 news release.
The City of Syracuse has 160 non-represented employees in managerial or administrative roles who could be eligible for this benefit, it said in an email response to a CNYBJ inquiry.
The new policy stipulates that employees must use the 12 weeks within one year of the new birth, adoption, or foster placement.
Staff has the option to take all 12 weeks at once, to use the 12 weeks in increments of at least one week at a time, or to create a part-time schedule, at the discretion of their department head.
“More and more businesses and governments are addressing paid parental leave, and the city must compete for talent in the open market. Paid parental leave helps staff manage a healthy work-life balance and provides organizations with an additional, attractive tool for retention,” Walsh said in the release. “The policy will keep parents from having to choose between giving up some or all of their vacation time or paycheck to spend time with their family.”
Syracuse did not previously have a paid parental leave policy. Instead, parents could take up to 12 weeks under the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Parents were required to use any accrued vacation, personal, and sick time and then take unpaid leave. Most employees did not have sufficient accrued time, and were therefore faced with taking time off without pay to care for their new child.
“Because we have more flexible work rules with non-represented workers which allow for an individual’s responsibilities to be reassigned to colleagues for a short period, we can start the benefit with this group of employees without having to increase costs,” said Walsh. “We welcome discussions with organized labor about similar policies for union employees in the future.”
