Panel Backs Unpaid Childbirth Leave for Both Mothers, Fathers

WASHINGTON — Responding to pleas from working couples, the Senate Labor Committee voted Thursday to require employers to grant up to 10 weeks of unpaid leave for mothers and fathers at the time of childbirth, adoption or serious illness of a child.

The committee brushed aside veto threats from the Reagan Administration and voted, 11 to 5, for the unprecedented parental leave legislation sponsored by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). Two liberal Republicans on the panel joined the nine Democrats in support of the bill, and five conservative GOP senators voted against it.

Bipartisan Support Claimed

Dodd said that the measure already has bipartisan support from 30 co-sponsors and that it has a good chance of being passed by Congress this year. But a major fight is certain when the issue comes to the Senate floor.

The bill would also require employers to give all workers up to 13 weeks of unpaid medical leave if they have a serious illness. The businesses would have to maintain workers’ health insurance in force during their absence.

The leave requirements would apply to all firms with more than 20 employees.

Proponents argued that the legislation is needed because women now are much more likely to work and to keep their jobs after they have children and fathers have assumed new family responsibilities.

They said workers need this federal assurance that they could get their jobs back after taking time off to deal with the burdens of caring for a baby or a seriously ill child.

The conservative senators objected to what they called government intrusion into businesses’ employment policies.

Maternity leave is already provided by many state laws and in labor-management agreements, so there is no need for the federal government to act, they said.

“I personally agree with the idea, and it’s even a policy in my own office, but I just don’t believe the federal government should tell every small company in America how to run its business,” said one opponent, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

A General Accounting Office study shows that employers would hire temporary workers to replace only 30% of those who obtain such leaves, a committee spokeswoman said.

Similar Bill in House

The House Education and Labor Committee has approved a similar bill, but it provides for coverage of firms with 50 or more employees for three years, then lowers that to 30 or more employees.

Letters from the Labor Department, the Justice Department and the Office of Personnel Management all expressed the Administration’s firm opposition to the parental leave bill and said that the President’s senior advisers would recommend a veto if Congress passes the measure this year.

Dodd, who originally introduced a bill that would have required up to 18 weeks of parental leave and up to 26 weeks of medical leave, scaled back the requirements in the revised legislation that was approved by the Labor Committee.