November 18, 2021

Chamber of Mothers Spreads Awareness and Advocacy for Paid Family Leave

       

Chamber of Mothers is a newly formed group by moms and for moms. Chamber of Mothers is comprised of lawyers, advocates, and leaders advocating for the interests of moms, with their first goal to secure federal paid family leave.

Congress is in the midst of negotiating the Build Back Better Bill, legislation proposed by President Joe Biden to help America rebuild in the wake of COVID-19. The legislation is largely broken into three categories:

  • The American Rescue Plan (a COVID-19 relief package);
  • The American Jobs Plan (an infrastructure proposal intended to aid in the reduction of climate change), and;
  • The American Families Plan (a social policy focusing on welfare and social services funding).

Chamber of Mothers is currently focused on the American Families Plan, specifically the proposed federal funding for paid family leave. Right now, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is the only federal legislation related to family leave and fails to financially compensate mothers and family members who are eligible utilize the leave policy. President Biden originally proposed 12 weeks of paid leave, and Congress completely cut paid leave from the plan altogether. After much back and forth, Democrats reintroduced four weeks of paid family leave back into the proposal.

In the wake of this addition, the Chamber took to social media, spreading awareness on the need to keep federal paid family leave. They utilized #savepaidleave and #buildbackbleeding to build and track support of the movement. In the coalitions’ inaugural post, they created a symbol highlighted above “[t]he shape that the hands are making evokes the shape of the vagina, the entrance to the womb where life is formed. The hands are the union of two as one, and conjure the helping hands and village of support needed for new mothers and families.” This image spread throughout thousands and posts and a myriad of communities highlighting the need for federal support for mothers. The group is eager to grow and encourages those interested to enter their information on their website in addition to staying abreast of their social media pages.

Written by Law Clerk Katina Smith

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The Week in FFCRA Complaints: Employers Do Not Seem to Understand Mandated Worker Protections

July 31, 2020
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Disability Discrimination
t is starting to seem, from our perspective, that either employers have not been made sufficiently aware of the leave entitled to workers under the FFCRA or that they are willing to risk a lawsuit for wrongful termination.

The Berke-Weiss Law Weekly Roundup: While the Outlook Darkens, We Celebrate Some Small Victories

July 31, 2020
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The clock has essentially wound down on extending assistance for the 30+ million Americans currently on the unemployment rolls. White House officials and Congressional Democrats remain miles apart, with the latter rejecting a temporary extension of the benefits. There are also huge question marks over issues we focus on, particularly child care and employment law, both of which were in the news this week and are the subject of several of the stories we feature

With the HEALS Act the Fight over Pandemic Lawsuits Takes Center Stage

July 30, 2020
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Earlier this week, Senate GOP leadership introduced their $1 trillion opening response to the $3 trillion Congressional HEROES Act, originally proposed in May. As we have noted, the signal demand coming from Mitch McConnell’s office is liability protection (the “L” in HEALS) for businesses and health care organizations. Translated, McConnell wants to prevent workers from suing employers if they contract coronavirus at work. And the GOP appears firm that without consensus on this issue, there will be no new stimulus.

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