California has one of the best Paid Family Leave (PFL) programs in the country, but unfortunately for University employees, the UC has never participated in that system. Under this program, both state and private employers in California are required to provide paid leave for employees who need to bond with a new child or care for a sick family member. The law defines family relatively expansively, including LGBTQ relationships, adoptive as well as biological children, “family” beyond the immediate nuclear family, and domestic partners as well as spouses.
We are delighted to report that, in a testament to the power of long-term organizing by staff and faculty together, the University of California will begin offering a similar program for both staff and faculty as of July 1, 2021. The faculty has some previously established rights to paid family leave time under the APM that will not be undermined by this additional benefit.
Disappointingly, although the new policy is an improvement, UCOP has decided to unnecessarily tie the benefit to the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This choice will exclude employees with less than one year of employment, as well as part-time and short-term employees, including most of our non-Senate teaching colleagues. These exclusions will hit the most vulnerable employees the hardest, working precisely against equity goals.
The program is set to begin July 1, and UCOP is asking for comments now. If you want to encourage the Administration to develop regulations that follow through on the promise of this new program, please click here to sign onto a letter to that effect. If the pandemic has shown us anything, it is that we need compassionate, equitable and systemwide leave policies for everyone. Join us in asking the UCOP administration to learn from these experiences and make this new program available to all UC employees.
Leslie Salzinger and Michael Burawoy, for the Board of the Berkeley Faculty Association.