File #: Res 1260-2008    Version: * Name: Amend the workers’ compensation law and insurance law in relation to providing benefits for family care. (A.9245)
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on General Welfare
On agenda: 2/13/2008
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the New York State legislature to pass Assembly bill A.9245, which would amend the workers’ compensation law and insurance law in relation to providing benefits for family care.
Sponsors: Letitia James, Vincent J. Gentile, Darlene Mealy, Rosie Mendez
Council Member Sponsors: 4

Res. No. 1260

 

Resolution calling upon the New York State legislature to pass Assembly bill A.9245, which would amend the workers’ compensation law and insurance law in relation to providing benefits for family care. 

 

By Council Members James, Gentile, Mealy and Mendez

 

                     Whereas, An increasing proportion of parents are in the workforce and the number of workers caring for elderly relatives is rapidly growing; and

Whereas, Approximately 67 percent of women with children under 18 years old and approximately 53 percent of women with children under three years old are engaged in employment; and

                     Whereas, According to a recent national survey, 21 percent of adults regularly provide care to another adult, about half of whom report providing eight or more hours of care per week; and

                     Whereas, The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers in larger businesses to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth or adoption of a child or to care for a sick family member; and

                     Whereas, According to the United States Department of Labor, 78 percent of people who reported needing family leave in 2000 and were eligible for family leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act could not afford to take unpaid leave; and

Whereas, Existing workers’ compensation law in New York State requires employers to provide disability benefits payments of up to $170 per week when an employee is absent from work as a result of sickness or an injury that is unrelated to work, but the law does not include paid leave for the sickness or injury of a family member; and

                     

                     Whereas, The ability to care for family or household members is severely limited for persons who cannot utilize paid sick leave benefits to provide such care; and

                     Whereas, Paid leave can be beneficial to employers as well as employees, as employees who take temporary paid time off to care for newborns are more likely to return to their employer, thereby reducing turnover rates; and

                     Whereas, A.9245 would create a paid family care program that includes domestic partners and grandparents; and

                     Whereas, Under this bill, workers would be able to receive modest cash payments for 12 weeks while taking leave to (i) bond with a newborn, newly placed foster child, or newly adopted child; or (ii) care for a seriously ill child, parent, spouse, domestic partner, grandchild, or parent-in-law; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the New York State legislature to pass Assembly bill A.9245, which would amend the workers’ compensation law and insurance law in relation to providing benefits for family care.

 

                     

MBT/FR

LS 2551

2/1/08

4:51pm