Governmental Affairs
As Human Resource Professionals, we are often called upon to not only follow employment laws, but interpret them and apply them to our workplaces. More than that, we are often called upon to respond to and give opinions of upcoming laws that will affect the ways that we do our jobs. We do that through letter writing campaigns, contacting our elected officials, and even attending legislative conferences in Austin and Washington, D.C.
SHRM's 2009 Governmental Affairs Goals
Relationship Building
- Adopt and implement SHRM’s 2009 governmental affairs goals.
- Encourage chapter members to complete the “HR Advocacy” Questionnaire by February 15, 2009. (The questionnaire will be developed by the SHRM Government Affairs Department.)
Information Sharing
- A chapter representative will attend the SHRM Legislative and Employment Law Conference and participate in the Capitol Hill Advocacy Day.
- Present, at least quarterly, a legislative update at chapter meetings.
- Provide, at least quarterly, a legislative update in the chapter newsletter.
- Chapter representative(s) will participate in at least one SHRM Governmental Affairs CLA conference call and report back to the board/chapter.
- Participate in a SHRM volunteer leader Governmental Affairs CLA webcast or view an archived webcast and report back to the board/chapter.
To learn more about SHRM Governmental Affairs Advocacy, please click here.
Government Affairs Update - 10/30/09
Federal Legislative Alert!
Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647). The new law includes an expansion of the recently-enacted exigency and caregiver leave provisions for military families under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).
In January 2008, Congress amended the FMLA to provide:
Exigency leave - up to 12 weeks of leave for urgent needs related to a reservist family member’s (spouse, son, daughter, or parent) call to active service.
H.R. 2647 expands the exigency leave benefits to include family members of active duty service members. Under current law, only family members of National Guard and Reservists are eligible for “exigency leave.
Caregiver leave - up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to an employee to care for a family member (spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin) who is injured while serving on active military duty.
H.R. 2647 expands the caregiver leave provision to include veterans who are undergoing medical treatment, recuperation or therapy for serious injury or illness that occurred any time during the five years preceding the date of treatment.
These previsions are effective upon enactment.
In addition to providing leave for military families, the FMLA provides unpaid leave for the birth, adoption or foster care placement of an employee’s child, as well as for the “serious health condition” of a spouse, son, daughter, or parent, or for the employee’s own medical condition. To be eligible for the leave, employees must work in organizations of 50 or more employees and work at least 1,250 hours in a 12-month period.
Government Affairs Update - 09/22/09
Fall is upon us and we’re beginning another quarter with much ado about everything concerning health care. Regardless of your political persuasion, age, ethnicity, or virtually any other classification we’d like to mention, this issue has galvanized those for and those against, into armies of zealots like no other issue within recent memory. Yet, like any good magician, our “representatives” in Washington have other tricks up their sleeves that may pop out at any time. It’s one of these legislative slights-of-hand that this article addresses; namely, the Healthy Families Act.
The Healthy Families Act in a nutshell:
Who does it affect?
Employers with fifteen (15) or more Employees
What does it require of Employers?
Seven (7) days of PAID sick leave for Employees to care for personal or family health care needs
How is it applied?
These seven (7) PAID days must be granted over and above any vacation, personal, or sick leave, currently offered by the Employer or any PTO structure currently in place. Reduction of current benefits is strictly prohibited.
What does this mean to your Employer?
That’s a question only you can answer by doing the math. Let’s take an employer with 50 employees whose average wage is $15 per hour.
50 employees X $15 = $750
$ 750 X 8 hours = $6,000
$6,000 X 7 Days = $42,000
$42,000! And this doesn’t include the cost of temporary employees who may be needed to fill in or the other costs to business due to failure to meet deadlines or other requirements.
With the recent passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, (author of this bill), the probability of the sympathy vote for passage is high. Therefore, although Healthy Families Act is not in the spotlight at the moment, we must be vigilant in addressing it. Each of us must do the research within our own companies. Crunch the numbers and find out the true cost of the Healthy Families Act on our businesses. Then sit down with our CEOs and let them know of this looming threat.
Although both of our Senators have expressed their opposition to this bill, our Representative in the House, Sylvester Reyes, is a co-sponsor. He has given no indication he will stray from party dictate when the time comes to push this legislation through. Let’s take a moment before the month is out to write a letter of thank you to our Senators, Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. Thank them for their service and encourage them to stand firmly in opposition. Let’s also inform Rep. Reyes of the devastating effects on our businesses if this irresponsible bill is enacted. If those whom we employ in Washington receive enough feedback from the Presidents and CEOs of businesses, we may stand a chance of removing this rabbit from the magic act now going on in our nation’s capital.
Debra Curry, SPHR - 2009 Governmental Affairs Director