The Covington Board of Commissioners will vote on a new parental leave policy for non-union city workers next week. The policy will grant about six weeks of leave.
“It applies to all parents,” said Covington’s Director of People and Technology Department (essentially the city’s HR department), Cindy Lewis. “If both parents work for the city, they each receive the full benefit. The leave may be taken in blocks or intermittently within a 12-month period of time.”
If the city wants to extend the benefit to union employees, it would have to go through a required collective bargaining process.
The benefit would run concurrently with benefits guaranteed under the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, meaning workers couldn’t stack the benefits. However, the leave would be guaranteed not only to workers whose families birth their own children but also to workers who adopt or take in foster kids. Mayor Ron Washington, who was adopted, commended the policy for extending to such families.
“The interesting thing about this policy, it also covers parents that are adopting children and foster children,” said Washington. “Of course, I’m big on adoption since I was adopted.”
The leave would also be organized into several tiers, as outlined in the table below.
The policy was placed on the consent agenda for next week’s meeting, meaning it will likely pass.
You can read the full policy below.
