Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) had her first child while serving in the House in 2014. Four years later, she became the first sitting senator to give birth while in office.
“It wasn’t until I became a mom and was traveling back to Illinois twice a week and trying to pump milk for my baby that I realized there were no lactation rooms available at the airport,” Duckworth told HuffPost. “I was told, ‘Well, you can plug in your breast pump next to the guy charging the phone.'”
The US tends to lag behind other developed countries when it comes to progressive and family-friendly policies. One piece of legislation that Duckworth says needs support is the Family and Medical Leave Act, which turns 30 this year.
FMLA ensures that workers can take up to 12 weeks of work-protected leave to care for a new child or a sick loved one. Historic as it was at the time, the law came with some significant loopholes: Only unpaid time is guaranteed, and millions of workers fall outside the protection of the law because they work for small employers or cannot work enough hours.
Duckworth plans to reintroduce a bill in the Senate on Thursday that would add about 3 million additional workers to FMLA coverage: education support professionals. These are school employees who are not teachers and usually work nine or 10 months a year, such as cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, administrative staff and educators who assist teachers in the classroom.
While teachers have protections under the FMLA, many educational support professionals are excluded because their schedules are part-time and they don’t work 1,250 hours a year. Unless the local school district has negotiated a leave policy for these workers, they may not be able to take time off and still know they will have a job back.
“It’s your lunch girl, it’s your janitor, it’s your bus driver, and they don’t qualify because it’s hard to get to the minimum hours,” Duckworth said. “Everyone should have access to FMLA, and these educational support professionals are integral to students and schools across America.”
Bill Duckworth, sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), would create a separate hourly limit for these workers. They will be able to take unpaid leave as long as they work 60% of their normal expected hours in a month. Thus, cafeteria workers who can only work 15 hours a week still have to work again if they have to stop working for a few weeks.
The major teachers’ unions — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — are the two biggest supporters of Duckworth’s bill.
Washington Post via Getty Images
Joshua Webster, a school employee and local union leader in Madison, Wisconsin, said workers shouldn’t have to quit their jobs because they have to take care of others. She said a cooking aide in her school district recently lost her fiance and is now taking care of two children. Because he didn’t qualify for family leave, the union helped negotiate a special arrangement with the district because of the tragic situation.
Webster said the worker is now on leave and has a job back, but only because the school district is willing to compromise.
“It speaks volumes for what is going on,” said Webster, whose union is part of the AFT. “He has no clock. He will always stop. His place will not be taken.”
The National Partnership for Women and Families, a group that advocates for strong leave policies, thinks that more than 40% US workers are not entitled to unpaid leave under the FMLA. Of those who take statutory leave, about half step away from work because of their own health problems, according to Labor Department data. Leave is usually short: More than three-quarters of workers take two months or less.
“It’s the lunch girl, it’s the janitor, it’s your bus driver, and they’re not eligible.”
– Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
Duckworth said expanding protections for school support workers is not only morally right but makes smart public policy, considering school staff shortages. School districts have struggled to keep up with bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other employees as COVID-19 has strained the workforce and the labor market.
In federal survey released last year, 60% of US school principals said they had a hard time filling non-teaching positions in schools.
“You see where people can’t take time off or have access to FMLA to care for their loved ones during the pandemic,” Duckworth said. “As a result, many of those workers quit looking for other jobs they could do, or made the difficult decision to quit. And we don’t want to lose that workforce.
Bill Duckworth did not leave the committee last time. Although the bill was introduced by Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) in the House.
Democrats have not been successful in pushing for more aggressive reforms to the FMLA. While controlled by Democrats, the House passed a bill to create a paid leave program funded through the corporate minimum tax and administered through the Social Security Administration. However, the bill died in the Senate. Now that Republicans are in control of the House, it’s unlikely any legislation will be passed anywhere.
But there are some glimmers of hope for more modest legislation for working parents. In an omnibus bill passed late last year, Republicans joined with Democrats to include two key provisions: one that guarantees basic workplace accommodations for pregnant employees, and another that expands workplace protections for women who are breastfeeding. In a sign of the amount of support they had, both measures passed, respectively 73-24 and 92-5.
Duckworth said the pandemic could help change some lawmakers’ perspectives on the issue.
“People are finally realizing the decisions they have to make,” he said. “It’s becoming more visible, people have to choose between working sick and keeping a salary, or in many cases just quitting the workforce.”
According to Duckworth, ensuring that school bus drivers can take leave without losing their jobs is not a heavy burden.
“This is the minimum that should be provided,” he said.