YSU board expected to OK leave program

By Harold Gwin

Employees previously had to use up their sick time or take unpaid medical leave.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State University Board of Trustees is expected to adopt the university’s first paid maternity/parental leave program this month.

Faculty and classified union employees got the paid leave for the first time as part of their new contracts negotiated earlier this year.

The trustees’ Internal Affairs Committee voted last week to approve the policy for all employees, and it will come up for a final vote before the board Sept. 19.

Under the proposed board policy, which mirrors the new faculty and classified employee contract terms, paid maternity leave offers up to six weeks of leave at current salary for recovery from childbirth and/or to care for and bond with a newborn or newly adopted child.

Three weeks of paid parental leave at current salary is available for a biological father, domestic partner or adoptive parent for the same purpose. It must be used within six months of a child’s birth or adoption.

Birth mothers can also get the three weeks of paid parental leave in addition to their paid maternity leave. The additional time must be used within six months of a child’s birth.

Employees may still use their paid sick leave days to extend the period of paid leave, if they wish.

For employees who adopt a child, the policy also offers a payment of $2,000 for adoption expenses that may be taken in lieu of paid maternity and parental leave.

Employees on paid maternity or parental leave will continue to receive all employer-paid benefits.

This is something new, said Atty. Holly Jacobs, YSU general counsel, who presented the policy to the board committee.

Previously, employee contracts provided only time off without pay, she said.

Scott Schulick, board president, said the issue came up in March in faculty and classified employee negotiations, and the board determined it would like to see paid maternity/parental leave become a formal university policy.

Jacobs said that possibility was discussed in the contract negotiations, but the unions preferred to have it negotiated as part of their agreements.

The trustees decided to make it university policy anyway, and it applies to all full- and part-time employees who have completed at least one year of service.

Nancy White, president of the faculty union, said the old maternity leave required employees to use up their regular sick days if they wanted to be paid while on leave. Once their sick days were used up, they could take unpaid family medical leave, White said.

She pointed out Ohio state law requires paid maternity leave for public employees.

gwin@vindy.com