Paid Family Leave for Public Employees

As employers and employees across New York State get ready for New York State’s Paid Family leave to go into effect on January 1st, public employees who are not covered by the law are looking on in frustration.

Although New York City has a separate paid family leave policy for its employees who are considered management, that leaves hundreds of thousands of New York City’s public employees without coverage by any paid family leave policy.  Some of those workers are profiled in this New York Times article.

Under the New York State Paid Family Leave Law, public employers may opt-in to the law, and labor unions can collectively bargain with the employer to offer Paid Family Leave benefits. It will be interesting to see whether unions will bargain for Paid Family Leave, and which public employers offer Paid Family Leave, and if they choose to do so based on the same formula of the state law, or if they will create their own rules.