Image: Kristi Blokhin/Shutterstock.com
The SEC has said it will provide some paid parental leave for its employees, a confirmation of earlier reports that the agency would launch a program mirroring the one the FDIC recently announced.
As at the FDIC, the SEC program is to provide six weeks of paid parental leave per 12 months for caring for or bonding with a newborn or newly adopted child or one placed for foster care; the leave could be used either all at once or intermittently, within one year of that event. It is to be available upon hire and eligible employees will not be required to use their sick or annual leave first before taking it. Also similarly, the leave will be in addition to the 12 weeks per 12 months entitlement for unpaid leave for parental and certain personal or family medical conditions under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
According to an agency message to employees, the leave entitlement will be available effective with the pay period starting Sunday (October 27).
The two agencies are among the few that negotiate over certain pay and benefits policies outside the Postal Service. While the FDIC program was announced after the agency reached an agreement with the NTEU union—in a contract still subject to ratification, with the program to start in January—the SEC said it is implementing its program even though negotiations are still ongoing.
Meanwhile, House and Senate negotiators still have not produced a final version of the annual DoD budget, the House version of which—but not the Senate version—would turn the 12 weeks of FLMA leave into paid time. That would apply government-wide and would cover the full range or purposes under that law, not just parental purposes.