Hb 146: Paid Parental Leave

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Citation: Vol. 38 No. 1
• Publication year: 2022
• topic: Family Law,Labor Law,Employment Law,Public Sector Law

HB 146: Paid Parental Leave

Evan Alberhasky
ealberhasky1@student.gsu.edu

Asher Lipsett
alipsett1@student.gsu.edu

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public officers and employees

Personnel Administration: Amend Article 1 of Chapter 20 of Title 45 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Relating to General Provisions Regarding Personnel Administration, so as to Provide for Paid Parental Leave for Eligible State Employees and Eligible Local Board of Education Employees; Provide for Definitions; Provide for Eligibility; Provide for Terms and Conditions; Provide for Certain Prohibitions; Provide for Rules; Provide for Related Matters; Repeal Conflicting Laws; and for Other Purposes

Code Sections: O.C.G.A. § 45-20-17 (amended)

Bill Number: HB 146

Act Number: 225

Georgia Laws: 2021 Ga. Laws 491

Summary: The Act establishes a paid parental leave program for certain public employees of Georgia. Eligible employees include those who work for the executive, legislative, or judicial branches of the state government as well as those employed by local boards of education. The Act provides that such employees, both mothers and fathers, are eligible to receive 120 hours of paid leave per twelve-month period after birthing, adopting, or fostering a child.

Effective Date: July 1, 2021

History

In the United States, one of the richest, most developed countries in the world, the availability of paid parental leave as an employment benefit is lacking. Additionally, the United States is the only high-income country, as classified by the World Bank, that does not have

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paid maternity leave, let alone paid paternity leave.¹ Although the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides that employees can take up to twelve weeks of leave for qualified medical or family reasons without losing their job, many eligible employees do not take advantage of FMLA's unpaid leave because they cannot afford the loss of income.² In recent years, individual states have taken charge of enacting paid parental leave policies. As of 2019, however, only eight states and the District of Columbia have passed and implemented legislation in this area and only for certain types of employment, making access to paid parental leave contingent on where one lives, works, and the kind of job one holds.³

In 2020, the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (FEPLA) attempted to address the paid parental leave void.⁴ The Act amended the FMLA to provide up to twelve weeks of paid leave to covered federal employees regarding the birth or placement (for adoption or foster care) of a child.⁵ In the same year, the Georgia state legislature also attempted to pass a similar bill, House Bill (HB) 1094, which would have provided three weeks of paid parental leave to full-time state employees with more than six months of service, regardless of sex.⁶ Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced state legislators to grapple with a rushed end to the session, and ultimately the Senate Committee on Insurance and Labor voted to approve a substitute bill

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that effectively "strip[ped] out the original language of the bill and replac[ed] it with a measure to reduce legislator pay."⁷

In early 2021, Representative Houston Gaines (R-117th), who initially brought forth the paid parental leave bill during the previous legislative session, decided to reintroduce the bill as HB 146 this session, and it "pass[ed] [] quickly through the House."⁸ HB 146 was similar to HB 1094, except HB 146 added local boards of education employees to the paid parental leave eligibility pool.⁹ Representative Gaines, the bill's lead sponsor, specifically referenced the Trump Administration's "leadership" in enacting paid parental leave at the federal level.¹⁰ At the state level, various Georgia organizations across the political spectrum united in support of the bill, including 9to5 Georgia, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Association of Educators, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, and Atlanta chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.¹¹ Given the bill's politically diverse backing and HB 1094 passing in the House by a vote of 164 to 1 in the previous year, HB 146 enjoyed popular, bipartisan support.¹²

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Bill Tracking of HB 146

Consideration and Passage by the House

Representative Houston Gaines (R-117th) was joined by five co-sponsors in the House: Representative Sharon Cooper (R-43rd), Representative Jan Jones (R-47th), Representative Marcus Wiedower (R-119th), Representative Deborah Silcox (R-52nd), and Representative Brett Harrell (R-106th).¹³ The House read the bill for the first time on January 28, 2021, and for the second time on January 29, 2021.¹⁴ The House Committee on Health and Human Services favorably reported the bill on February 10, 2021.¹⁵ The House read the bill for the third time on February 16, 2021.¹⁶ The same day, the House passed and adopted the bill by a vote of 155 to 2.¹⁷

Consideration and Passage by the Senate

President Pro Tempore Butch Miller (R-49th) sponsored the legislation in the Senate.¹⁸ The Senate first read the bill on February 17, 2021, and referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Insurance and Labor.¹⁹ The Senate Committee on Insurance and Labor then favorably reported the bill by substitute on March 17, 2021.²⁰ To better align with FMLA language, the substitute changed the leave period from a "rolling 365 day period" to a "rolling 12 month period" at the request of state agencies that would be implementing the paid leave program.²¹ The substitute also removed language, which provided that

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the "leave [did] not have to be used in a block" if "such leave [] [did] not unduly disrupt the operations of the [] employing entity" and added a provision, which stated that the rolling twelve-month period "shall be measured backward from the date an eligible employee first uses parental leave."²²

The Senate read the bill for the second time on March 18, 2021.²³ The Senate read the bill for the third time on March 25, 2021.²⁴ On that same day, the Senate passed and adopted the bill by substitute by a vote of 52 to 0.²⁵ The House then agreed to the Senate substitute on March 29, 2021.²⁶ The House sent the bill to Governor Brian Kemp (R) on April 6, 2021, and he signed the bill into law as Act 225 on March 5, 2021.²⁷ The Act's effective date is July 1, 2021.²⁸

The Act

The Act amends the following portions of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated: Article 1 of Chapter 20 of Title 45, relating to general provisions regarding personnel administration, to provide for paid parental leave for eligible state employees and eligible local boards of education employees.²⁹ The Act's overall purpose is to provide for definitions, eligibility, terms and conditions, prohibitions, and to repeal conflicting laws.³⁰

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Section 1(a)

Section 1(a) provides revised definitions for "eligible employee," "employing entity," and "qualifying life event" as used in the Code section.³¹ "Eligible employee" is defined as "any individual identified in subparagraph (A), (E), (F), (G), or (L) of paragraph (2) of Code section 45-18-1 who is classified as full-time by the applicable state employing entity," and "[a]ny individual identified in paragraph (4) of Code section 20-2-880 or paragraph (3) of Code section 20-2-910 who is classified as full-time by the applicable local board of education."³² An "employing entity" is defined as either the "executive, legislative, or judicial branch of state government" or a "local board of education."³³ Lastly, a "qualifying life event" is defined as either the "birth of a child of an eligible employee," the "placement of a minor child for adoption with an eligible employee," or the "placement of a minor child for foster care with an eligible employee."³⁴

Section 1(b)

Section 1(b) qualifies that eligibility for paid parental leave under the Act will only become active for eligible employees of an employing entity "after six continuous months of employment with the employing entity regardless of whether the employee is eligible for paid or unpaid leave under federal law."³⁵

Section 1(c)

Section 1(c) provides that eligible employees may take a maximum of 120 hours of paid parental leave during any rolling twelve-month period, "regardless of the number of qualifying life events that occur within such period."³⁶ A rolling twelve-month period is measured backward from the date an eligible employee first uses parental

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leave.³⁷ Further, "[s]uch leave may be used as needed and may be taken in increments of less than eight hours," although "any such leave that remains 12 months after the qualifying life event shall not carry over for future use."³⁸

Section 1(d)

Section 1(d) indicates that any unused...