Rockland Business Association helps block paid family leave mandate
RBA Press Release
July 3, 2008

The Rockland Business Association in connection with The Business Council of New York State successfully blocked legislative proposals to impose a paid family leave mandate on businesses of all sizes.

The block comes after more than a year of hard campaigning against the bill, which would have imposed 12 weeks of disability insurance benefits for family leave purposes on business of all sizes. It also would have provided 12 weeks of leave and would have increased maximum disability benefit from $170 per week to $550 per week by 2010 and would have permanently indexed the benefit to one half of the state’s average weekly wage.

“This was one of those feel good, sounds nice pieces of legislation that absolutely disregards the consequences to both employees and the employer if implemented,” said Al Samuels, RBA President/CEO, who spent many days in Albany fighting the legislation. “Small businesses would have been put under the potential of tremendous burden if they had to comply with the requirements of this bill.”

Samuels explained that an employee taking advantage of the proposed legislation, combining it with benefits under the federal family leave act as well as the company’s vacation, personal leave and normal sick leave, could be absent for as long as seven months. “Such actions would create a burden on co-workers, additional expenses for an employer and disruption of the normal conduct of business,” he said.

“The Business Council worked closely with the Rockland Business Association in this campaign,” said Tom Minnick, Vice President of Human Resources of The Business Council. “The efforts of RBA and other chambers around the state were vital to the campaign’s success.”

RBA members like Jan Degenshein, President of Degenshein Architects in Nyack, agree that the legislation would have been harmful to business if implemented. “Paid family leave can be financially oppressive to the small business owner if it extends too far,” he said. Degenshein serves as chair of the RBA Government Affairs and Economic Development Committee.

A web based e-advocacy campaign through The Business Council and Chamber Alliance of NY websites, including the RBA, allowed nearly 1,400 people to voice their opposition to the legislation by sending almost 17,000 faxes to state legislators and the Governor.

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