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OPM opposes 1 hour breast-feeding leave
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Posted on Aug 21 2000
Office of Personnel Management Director Mathilda A. Rosario has opposed a proposal that will authorize women government employees who have newly born children one hour of administrative leave for breast-feeding.
While she shares the concern of the Legislature on the welfare of newborn children, Ms. Rosario said she is still opposing HB 12-068 because it “would exacerbate an already existing equity problem and could be misconstrued as discriminatory.”
HB 12-068, otherwise known as the Breast Feeding Act of 2000, will allow every mother who has a newly born child to be permitted one hour of paid administrative leave each day during working hours to breast-feed her child.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Brigida DLG. Ichihara, said such privilege will not exceed more than one year from the date of the child’s birth.
The Commonwealth at present has a generous maternity program with 15 working days leave on top of the sick leave. According to Ms. Rosario, to provide one hour of administrative leave per day would add to the benefit approximately 246 hours of administrative leave per breast-feeding mother.
Saying the proposed measure will only be given to a limited group of employees, Ms. Rosario said it also establishes an additional employee perks to an already generous government employee benefit program.
The OPM chief emphasized that employee benefits are administrative in nature and should be established by regulation instead of legislation. “Adjustment of non-entitlement benefits is an administrative matter that requires a flexibility that would be lost if these benefits were established by legislation,” she added.
