Pima Co. officials discuss challenges of paid parental leave

PIMA COUNTY, AZ ( Tucson News Now) - Pima County officials continue their debate on whether to provide six weeks of paid parental leave to families of newborn children or to families who adopt.

The county has been working on the proposal for several weeks, but has not found a way to make it as "revenue neutral as possible."

If it finds a way to do that, Pima County officials said it would be the first municipal government in Arizona to provide the benefit.

Right now, workers who take parental leave cobble together sick time, vacation time or time off without pay in order to stay home with a new child.

The county estimates the cost would be between $1.1 million and $1.7 million annually.

About 145 workers take parental leave every year.

The county will discuss three potential options which will cut costs but still, it may not be enough.

First, it will not hire temporary workers to replace workers who are no paid parental leave.

Departments would also not be allowed to "authorize overtime" to other workers to perform the additional work.

Secondly, parental leave may be paid 50 percent to 75 percent instead of full salary.

And finally, employees would not be able to use Catastrophic Leave Bank hours for parental leave.

According to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, even if three options were adopted, it would still cost the county at least $725,000 and could cost up to $1.6 million.

The concern is if a public safety officer is out on parental leave, there would be no option other than to "authorize expensive overtime" to cover that officer's duties.

The county feels it may not be practicable at this time to provide parental leave, but that will be a board decision.

The paid leave program has been proposed by the Service Employees International Union, the union bargaining agent for county workers.

Some studies have shown governments have difficulty competing with the private sector for jobs and it can sometimes make a difference depending on the benefits package.

Those studies suggest a need for parental leave in public entities.

But Pima County Human Resources said it has not discovered a shortage of applicants for county jobs, sometimes getting as many as 20 qualified applicants per opening.

Some private companies in the U.S. have begun to offer parental leave as an option and it's a routine policy in many European countries.

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