{"id":31640,"date":"2019-02-14T11:16:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T16:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=31640"},"modified":"2019-02-15T12:46:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T17:46:54","slug":"states-family-leave-program-will-impact-employee-scheduling-among-other-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/02\/states-family-leave-program-will-impact-employee-scheduling-among-other-things\/","title":{"rendered":"State\u2019s Family Leave Program Will Impact Employee Scheduling, Among Other Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_31641\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31641\" style=\"width: 195px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-31641\" src=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/02\/family-leave-hamel-c-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/02\/family-leave-hamel-c-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/02\/family-leave-hamel-c.jpg 362w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-31641\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gail Hamel is the owner of Hamel Resources, a human resources consulting firm.<br \/>Courtesy Hamel Resources LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By Christine Graf<br \/>\nThe state\u2019s paid family leave program (PFL) is having a significant impact on some businesses, say those in the Human Resources field.<br \/>\nNew York\u2019s PFL has been in effect since 2018, but won\u2019t be completely phased in until 2021. It provides paid time off for individuals to bond with a newly born, adopted or fostered child, care for a family member with a serious illness, or assist a loved one when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service.<br \/>\nAs of Jan. 1, New Yorkers may be eligible to take up to 10 weeks of family leave and receive 55 percent of their salary. By 2021, 12 weeks of leave will be offered at 67 percent pay. Weekly pay caps are calculated based on state averages.<br \/>\nGail Hamel, the owner of Lake George-based Hamel Resources, said the law impacts some businesses more than others. She is a human resources consultant who works with both large and small businesses.<br \/>\n\u201cThe biggest thing with the paid family leave act is certainly scheduling,\u201d she said. \u201cEspecially when you have an employer with a limited number of employees.\u201d<br \/>\nShe said many of her smaller clients were exempt from the FMLA because they had less than 50 employees. That is not the case with New York\u2019s PFL. Although public employ<!--more-->ers can opt out of PFL, there are few exceptions for private employers regardless of size.<br \/>\n\u201cIf you have 50 employees, you have half a chance of being able to cover a leave,\u201d said Hamel. \u201cWith FMLA, they didn\u2019t have to worry about it if they didn\u2019t have 50 employees.\u201d<br \/>\nShe hasn\u2019t received much feedback from her clients about the impact PFL is having on their businesses. She noted they have been busy complying with the state\u2019s new sexual harassment law. This law requires employers to implement sexual harassment prevention policies and conduct anti-harassment training for employees.<br \/>\nLocal business owner Linda Moran recently had several employees submit PFL paperwork. She has more than 200 employees working in her six Maple Leaf Childcare Centers. Because she is required to maintain state-mandated staff to child ratios, positions must be filled when someone goes out on PFL or FMLA.<br \/>\n\u201cJust filling their positions for that temporary time is really hard,\u201d said Moran. \u201cWe need to find someone who is good enough to cover for that spot. We need to hire a temporary person or fill that position from within from a lower position and hope it will work out. It\u2019s not like we work in an office where you can do without one secretary that week and give more work to somebody else. It doesn\u2019t work that way with us.\u201d\u201cI have one very large client in central New York with 1,200 employees where on any given day 75 to 80 employees have either New York State Paid Family Leave or the federally mandated medical leave,\u201d said Jim Marco, owner of Saratoga Human Resources Specialist. \u201cThat\u2019s 6-8 percent of the workforce.\u201d<br \/>\nMarco\u2019s client operates health care facilities including nursing homes. These facilities require 24 hour a day seven days a week staffing.<br \/>\n\u201cBeing able to maintain staffing is difficult especially in healthcare where you already have a nursing shortage,\u201d he said. \u201cIt becomes logistically very, very difficult. There\u2019s lot of per diem staff, and a lot\u2014a lot\u2014of overtime. You get people working difficult jobs and now they are working overtime so they are getting burnt out. You hear a lot of complaints about burnout. And you can\u2019t replace the people who are on leave.\u201d<br \/>\nUnder both the New York PFL and the federally mandated 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), employees are guaranteed job protection while on leave. Employers are not allowed to hire permanent replacements to fill temporarily vacant positions.<br \/>\nNew York\u2019s program is funded through payroll taxes. Therefore, it is not considered a direct cost to the employer. But Marco described the indirect costs to employers as significant.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s a horrible cost,\u201d he said. \u201cThe employer doesn\u2019t pay the premium, but the employer pays for all of the overtime while these folks are out. It\u2019s costing them significantly. Plus, there\u2019s an impact on employee morale when people are being overworked and getting burnt out. It impacts turnover. Managers are spending more and more time figuring out their scheduling. It\u2019s very, very difficult.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI\u2019m not suggesting these are bad programs,\u201d he said. \u201cBut an employer should be able to reach a point where they are able to say, \u2018We can\u2019t afford to do more than X number of employees given our size or X number of employees given our logistical concerns.\u2019 Every employer has unique circumstances.\u201d<br \/>\nMarco is concerned about the impact that existing and pending state legislation will have on businesses. Three laws are currently pending. The first would require employers to offer up to 12 weeks of bereavement leave. The second would require them to give their workforce 14-day advance notice of their schedules. The third would mandate nurse-to-patient ratios.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Christine Graf The state\u2019s paid family leave program (PFL) is having a significant impact on some businesses, say those in the Human Resources field. New York\u2019s PFL has been in effect since 2018, but won\u2019t be completely phased in until 2021. It provides paid time off for individuals to bond with a newly born, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":31641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>State\u2019s Family Leave Program Will Impact Employee Scheduling, Among Other Things - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/02\/states-family-leave-program-will-impact-employee-scheduling-among-other-things\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"State\u2019s Family Leave Program Will Impact Employee Scheduling, Among Other Things - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Christine Graf The state\u2019s paid family leave program (PFL) is having a significant impact on some businesses, say those in the Human Resources field. 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It provides paid time off for individuals to bond with a newly born, [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/02\/states-family-leave-program-will-impact-employee-scheduling-among-other-things\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-14T16:16:20+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-15T17:46:54+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/109\/2019\/02\/family-leave-hamel-c.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"362\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"556\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jake Van Ness\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/02\/states-family-leave-program-will-impact-employee-scheduling-among-other-things\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2019\/02\/states-family-leave-program-will-impact-employee-scheduling-among-other-things\/\",\"name\":\"State\u2019s Family Leave Program Will Impact Employee Scheduling, Among Other Things - 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