Thursday, October 25, 2007

Ohio pregnancy leave change proposed

By Jon Craig

Cincinnati Enquirer

COLUMBUS – Companies with four or more employees would be required to grant up to 12 weeks of paid or unpaid maternity leave under a new state rule approved Thursday by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

Federal law already requires companies with more than 50 employees to offer 12 weeks of unpaid maternity time off.

The change affecting smaller Ohio companies automatically becomes law unless it is invalidated by a 10-member legislative committee when it meets later this year.

If no action is taken by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, the rule becomes state law within 41 days of being filed.

Some business groups, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, said they oppose any abrupt rule change, preferring that the matter be debated by all legislators in the Ohio General Assembly.

“This is creating a super-protected class of women,” said Tony Fiore, director of labor and human resources policy with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. “It goes well beyond state and federal regulations.”

Fiore said it will make Ohio “stick out like a sore thumb,” creating a new disincentive for small companies to stay or relocate here.

Ohio would join 18 other states and the District of Columbia in requiring private employers to offer more generous maternity benefits than under federal law. A recent study by Policy Matters Ohio estimates at least 445,000 women in Ohio are not eligible for any leave from their jobs during pregnancy or after childbirth.

State Sen. Tom Niehaus, a New Richmond Republican and vice chairman of JCARR, said there has not been any legislative discussion on how to proceed. “JCARR is very limited as to what it can do,” Niehaus said.

JCARR can invalidate all or part of the new maternity leave rule – followed by approval by a majority of the Ohio House and Senate. Or the legislative committee can allow the rule to become state law without taking a vote.

Once the Civil Rights Commission officially refiles the rule change, Niehaus said, “That’s when the questions will start. …That’s when we’d hear from the groups in support of or opposed to.”

Current Ohio law requires companies to give women a “reasonable period of time” off work to care for their newborn.

The new state law would apply to all women regardless of how long they’ve worked at a company. Federal law requires women to work for a large company at least a year before they qualify for maternity leave.

Ohio mothers must demonstrate that a medical professional believes the time off is medically necessary, said Toni Delgado, spokeswoman for the Civil Rights Commission, which approved the rule change by a 4-1 vote.

But the Ohio Chamber of Commerce does not think the Civil Rights Commission has the statutory authority to pass such a rule, and questions the commission’s conclusion that it can be accomplished at no cost to employers, Fiore added.

Small companies will have to continue paying health benefits to the employee on leave, Fiore said, while hiring temporary workers and holding jobs open for new mothers. Further, the change discriminates against new fathers who might want to take a comparable paternity leave, he said.

Casting the dissenting vote was Commissioner Grace Ramos, who said the Civil Rights Commission went beyond simply clarifying existing law. It created a new policy that could both burden the state economically and lead to small businesses not hiring young women with families, she said.

“It’s not an easy job to have a child, but it has to be tempered with the economic needs of our state,” she said.

But another commissioner, the Rev. Aaron Wheeler Jr., said, “Maybe it’s just because I’m a mama’s guy, but I believe in mothers in America.’’