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Oregon is currently considering a bill to implement the paid family leave holiday bill 2005, like Washington, which has approved a similar policy in 2017.
Researchers at the School of Public Health at Oregon State University of Health and Science in Portland concluded that it is important that paid family leave is important to employees.
Assistant Professors Dawn Richardson, Julia Goodman and David Hurtado, of the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, have published "Employee Experiences with a Recently Adopted Paid Parental Leave Policy: Equity Considerations at the implementation of the policy "in Health EquityThe May edition.
Researchers have partnered with Multnomah County to evaluate a new paid leave policy adopted in November 2015. Their findings provide insights and advice for organizations implementing or planning to implement them, as well as measures to ensure equity in the access of employees to leave.
If Oregon approves paid family leave, we hope that our collaboration with Multnomah County can help Oregon employers really think about how they are applying the policy. Assuming this happens, it represents a significant shift in employee benefits and there is not much advice on how to proceed, and to do it well. "
Dawn Richardson, Assistant Professor, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health
The researchers found that the policy allowed employees to take paid leave to add a child to their family through a birth, an adoption or a foster family. . The vast majority of employees were satisfied with the benefits and emphasized how important it was for their families.
But the researchers also found that some employees had experienced inequities in the implementation of the policy, even though it was approved and available to all eligible county employees.
One participant, a woman of color, said she saw her experience of inequality recur despite the new policy.
"According to the supervisor, a person receives something very generous and a person from the next unit does not receive much," commented the participant. "It's a bit awful for all of us to see that, to see that inequality, even though we have these good policies."
Another participant reported having three different supervisors preparing to take family leave, which led to unfair decisions.
"I think this element of supervision can make parental leave extremely unfair," said the participant. "I had a plan with the first supervisor, who was very understanding, a very generous plan.And then this person left the week of my leave.And suddenly, I got this new person, and they did not want to honor the plan I had in place. "
The researchers quickly pointed out that these experiments are not specific to Multnomah County and would most likely be the story of a similar organization. Despite the best intentions of such policies, an explicit focus on equity is needed.
Richardson and Goodman said that training supervisors is one of the keys to achieving workplace equity. Supervisors must clearly define what the policy entails and how to guide employees in seeking paid time off and the combination of several benefits.
"Workplace culture matters a lot," Richardson said. "How do families show that they are really valued?"
Culture and the environment influence how employees perceive the policy. Drivers of the driving experience include the size and resources of the department, the demographic composition and the attitude of the supervisor.
If employees feel that their use of paid vacations is heavy for the employer, this could have negative consequences on the employee's contribution to the workplace.
"The most supportive employees also felt pbadionate about their employer, felt engaged, and returned to work to improve their productivity," said Richardson.
While Oregon is considering approving its own paid family leave policy, she added that much of the negative debate is about the cost burden, especially for small businesses.
"Costs are costs, but in our opinion, as a society, do we have to pay these costs, and who benefits?" Without paid leave, the costs are entirely borne by the workers, "she said.
Many studies show that employees and the employer benefit from long-term paid leave, but the conversation has not exceeded the upfront costs.
"We need to think about the areas we want to invest in. And part of that investment is not just adopting the policy, it's training people," said Richardson. "It's to see politics through."
Employers may have a hard time paying the costs of providing these benefits, but she, Goodman and Hurtado hope that a job like this will show in the long run that the cost is worth it.
Source:
Portland State University
Journal reference:
Richardson, D.M. et al. (2019) Experiences of employees with a recently adopted paid parental leave policy: equity considerations for the implementation of the policy. Health Equity. doi.org/10.1089/heq.2019.0007.
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