Most families across Massachusetts who work for municipalities aren’t eligible for paid family leave after having a baby, and must instead take unpaid time off to care for their newborn. But a Chilmark resident is trying to change that on Island, one town at a time.
In a Chilmark select board meeting on Tuesday, Vicki Divoll, a lawyer and finance committee chair for the town, presented her initiative for the introduction of four weeks of paid family leave for new parents or adoptive ones of children under 18 (or 23 if the child has a learning disability) — a bylaw change that would make Chilmark one of the only towns in Massachusetts with paid leave for municipal workers.
“They have to do unpaid leave, that’s federal law,” Divoll said in her presentation. “[But] there’s no paid leave in the other towns.”
According to Divoll, her proposal is based on a similar one recently added to the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School teacher contracts, where they are allowing paid family leave for teachers and school employees starting next year. Previously, school employees did not receive paid family leave.
When Massachusetts law mandated for private employers state-wide to give paid parental leave, the state exempted municipalities and schools. In the state system, if a local municipality or school wants to provide that benefit, all employees and employers are required to pay a small amount from each paycheck to a fund for family leave, for an employee to dip into when applicable.
There’s also a different option — a customized approach where the employer and employee fund the paid leave without dipping into a workplace-wide fund. The customized version is what the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School undertook this year with their new contracts. And that’s what Divoll is proposing for the town of Chilmark.
Divolli said that Cambridge is one of the only towns in Massachusetts that has done something similar to her proposition for its municipal staff. The city gives 24 weeks of paid leave to a new parent after the birth or adoption of their child through a combination of both sick and parental leave.
“Who could afford to not work and not get paid,” Divoll said, passionately addressing the round table of select board members.
Select board members said they appreciated the idea, but the proposed amendment was a bit under the wire for their upcoming special town meeting on June 23rd of this year. They voted to take the initiative under advisement, but were leaning toward waiting until next year’s town meeting cycle to introduce a new bylaw.
“We’d have to budget for it in the future,” town administrator Tim Carroll said.
“Special town meetings, to me, aren’t really a place for a bylaw,” select board member Jeffrey Maida added.
But Divoll said she got the plans ready specifically in time for the special town meeting upcoming. And that she hopes the select board will still consider adding it to the docket next month.
“I think it would be really exciting for Chilmark to be a leader in this for the Island,” she said. She urged the select board to look toward a different future for parents than the current system in place. “We would be cutting edge, but it’s 2025 for gosh sakes.”
Thank you for covering this important issue. I add that the Chilmark Human Resources Board worked together on this over the winter and adopted it unanimously. It is now up to the Select Board, and the voters at town meeting, to approve and implement this benefit for our town employees.
Bravo Ms. Divoll. It is way past time that Massachusetts municipalities should offer paid parental leave. Why should cities and towns be allowed to disregard this life affirming benefit that is required by private employers?
I’d encourage Chilmark, and all municipalities, to add another critical benefit to part time, year-round employees – paid sick time. Private employers with more than 11 employees are required by law to offer paid sick time, even to part timers. Like the parental leave law, however, municipalities are given a pass from this requirement. So in Chilmark, part time workers with years or even decades of dedicated service have their pay docked when they are sick.This is just wrong.
Comments are closed.