The United States is the only industrialized country that does not mandate paid parental leave for employees, leaving many new mothers without guaranteed job security, including those on UT payroll.
“It’s tricky here because there is not a specific maternity leave policy,” David Golden, Faculty Senate president said.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 requires employers to offer regular or term university employees, employed for at least 12 months and having accumulated at least 1,250 hours of service during the previous 12-month period, up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month time span. FML applies to about 58 percent of the American workforce, excluding employees of small firms and workers who started their job less than a year before the birth of a child.
“FML does not grant paid time,” Julie Monday, coordinator of Family and Medical Leave, said. “The university does not currently have a parental leave policy – paid time for maternity/paternity leave – for employees. FML is unpaid time, as is the leave from the state, and is essentially a form of job protection.”
Inflexible maternity leave policies in the U.S. may be accountable for stagnant rates in employment for women. After the 1950s, the percentage of employed women was on a steady incline. However, since 1990 there has been no increase, and the percentage of employed women has been 74 percent for 25 years, a percentage far smaller than other developed countries.
According to the CNN’s article “Why 26 percent of U.S. women still choose not to work” published Aug. 13, 2013, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the U.S. 27th out of 37 developed countries for women’s labor force participation in 2013.
FML is separate from leave policies created by the university. At UT, policies differentiate between 12-month employees, tenured faculty and administration and 9 month employees, instructors, lecturers and non-tenured faculty. Twelve month employees accumulate two kinds of leave: sick leave and annual leave. Annual leave is an approximate 45 days off per year that rolls over annually, and sick leave is accrued at the rate of one day per month and accumulates indefinitely.
“I probably have about six months of leave accumulated,” Golden said.
However, the majority of UT employees do not accrue leave at all. Nine-month faculty cannot accumulate leave but instead are expected to make up any missed time required of them for their 9-month employment. All time off for them is unpaid.
To cushion long absences for serious illness or family emergencies, UT has set an informal policy allowing faculty to modify their duties for a semester. Known as Modified Duty Assignment, the policy is a semi-formal agreement between the faculty member, a member of that employee’s department, the office of the provost and the dean of the faculty member’s college.
Modified Duty Assignment allows a faculty member to take one semester off, at full pay, twice during their career. According to John Zomchick, vice provost for faculty affairs, a modified schedule allows a faculty member to continue their work while not physically present.
“We understand that there is some work which can still be done at home or away from campus,” Zomchick said.
Nine-month employees can also apply to receive unpaid time off under FML in addition to Modified Duty Assignment. Zomchick explained UT’s leave policies were adopted in 2008 and modeled after Iowa State University.
“Most SEC schools, as I can determine, all but Alabama and Missouri, nine month faculty do in fact accrue sick leave but no annual leave,” Zomchick said.
To learn more about nine month faculty leaves, click here.
