Governor vetoes bills expanding family leave

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/16/7 | Ilana DeBare

[SmithL]

Saying that California's family leave laws are already too confusing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed two bills that would have expanded family leave to include care for ill siblings, in-laws and grandparents.

"While some expansion of existing law may have merit, these laws in combination are too expansive and also fail to recognize the need for reforms to current law," Schwarzenegger wrote in a veto message shortly before his Oct. 14 deadline to act on bills from the 2007 legislative session.

California now requires firms with 50 or more workers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for serious personal illness, bonding with a new baby or caring for a seriously ill dependent child, parent, spouse or domestic partner.

California also provides up to six weeks of paid family leave - funded through employee contributions to the state's disability insurance program - for baby bonding or care for an ill spouse, child, parent or domestic partner.

The two bills vetoed by the Republican governor - AB537 and SB727 - would have expanded both the unpaid and paid leave programs to include care for a sibling, mother- or father-in-law, grandparent or grandchild.

Schwarzenegger also vetoed a third bill, SB836, that would have prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of family responsibilities such as caring for a sick relative.

Family leave advocates, who had hoped he might sign at least one of the bills, called the vetoes "greatly disappointing."

[Jack Wilson]

12 weeks of leave! If you can be gone from your job that long, do they really need you?

[gridlock]

Schwarzenegger also vetoed a third bill, SB836, that would have prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of family responsibilities such as caring for a sick relative.

Law or no law, employers are going to do everything they can to avoid this liability. If an employer can hire somebody who is likely to disappear for months at a time while still being paid, or somebody who will not, who are they going to give the job to?

[Savage Beast]

"...would have expanded family leave to include care for ill siblings, in-laws and grandparents."

Hey! What about pets??? Neighbors??? Illegal aliens??? And what about leave to protest whatever you feel like protesting???

[jrp]

I love Paid Family Leave. Being single, I get to pay $500/year in extra state taxes so that co-workers, some with family incomes of $200K+, can take paid time off to hang out with their kids. Pure socialism.