Speaker 4: To be report of the full council agenda item one Constable 1189 ten. Relating to city employment and building sections four point 20.0 55 4.20 6.0 ten 4.20 7.0. 10.0 22.107 of code and adding a new chapter 4.29 to the Semester Code consisting of sections 4.20 9.0, 10.0, 20.0, 30.0, 40.0. 50.0, 60.0, 70.0, 80.0, 90 and point 100. All to provide additional paid parental leave, any new paid family care leave, benefit to eligible city employees, establishing other conditions of implementing the new leave benefits and ratifying confirmed research and prior acts.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Typically, this legislation would be heard by the Affordable Housing Neighborhood in Finance Committee, but we recognize that Councilman Gonzalez has put certainly a lot of energy and leadership behind this. So unless Councilmember Burgess has any objections, will defer to Councilmember Gonzalez, present this case. HUIZAR She have the floor.
Speaker 6: Thank you. This ordinance is an ordinance that would, if adopted, provide additional paid parental leave to qualifying employees, as well as adding a new paid family care leave benefit for eligible city employees. In a nutshell, what this ordinance does is provides employees who have been with the city for at least six months, 12 weeks of paid leave when they become a parent. That would include mothers and fathers, births, adoptions and of becoming a foster parent. In addition, it would provide additional time, a similar amount of time for paid family care leave as well. It does have a drawdown option. You heard Mr. Van Dike, Sean, from local PTA refer to this. The drawdown requires that employees use all but one week of their accrued vacation time and all but two weeks of their sick time. But I think, you know, in this in this instance, we worked very hard to try to make sure that all qualifying employees would have a guaranteed 12 weeks of paid leave under this proposal. And the ordinance that is before council to address one of the points that Mr. Van Dike meant made about the potential disparate impacts we had. I agree that we need to make sure that we continue to evaluate the impact and the benefit of our benefits under this particular program, and will continue to work with the executive to make sure that we do that type of study and evaluation to ensure that we are having the impact and the course that we intend to have, which is to really get at this issue around the gender equity issues that we see that women within the city's workforce currently experiences. So that's the basics of the particular policy. I think an important point of information under this particular ordinance is that it will be retroactive to January 1st of 2017. We have been in my office receiving inquiries from city employees about about that particular issue. So we ended our conversation publicly around paid family leave so that we can enter into negotiations with our unions before advancing legislation. And one of the critical pieces that we wanted to see out of the Labor Relations Policy Committee and for me personally was to make sure that there was retroactivity related to this particular bill so that we wouldn't be leaving employees behind as as we respected the collective bargaining process. And as we moved towards passing considering and ultimately passing this piece of legislation that is before us today. So this piece of legislation will be retroactive to January 1st of 2017, which means that if we have an employee who is who is a qualifying employee who would otherwise qualify for this program, that employee will be able to access the benefits that are being offered in the ordinance that we are considering today for passage. So with that being said, I would move for the passage of Council Bill 118910.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Has been moved. And secondly that any further comments or questions or concerns? Councilmember Swann.
Speaker 3: Thank you, President Harrell. Paid leave provides indispensable support and stability to working class families during some of the most important and trying periods, and are even more crucial to communities of color and the LGBTQ community, which are far more likely to be underemployed and or working in low paying jobs. The Seattle Women's Commission has reported that paid leave at the single most effective policy the city of Seattle can implement to advance towards gender equity for all workers. It also influences the amount of time that men spend on childcare and on household responsibilities. So I think it is it has a sort of hidden component as well that would be beneficial. And as the speaker from the Coalition of Unions spoke, there is a drawdown provision that workers could negatively that could negatively impact women. That is in this proposal. After using eight weeks of paid parental leave, a worker must drawdown vacation and sick leave banks to three weeks before accessing the last four weeks of paid parental leave. The coalition of unions is supporting it, but they have expressed their concerns that this means women who would more commonly use all 12 weeks of paid leave and that's borne out by data around the nation, would be forced to end up drawing down more vacation and sick leave than men in city employment. The city has agreed to study this and the unions have said that they want to revisit this in the new FT. Near-future to scrap the drawdown. And I must recognize that this is a good step forward. After the majority of the Council voted no on a proposal for 12 weeks that I brought forward for without a drawdown in November of 2015. So I'm glad that we're moving forward, but I think we should recognize the role of the movement in forcing the city to act. In addition to the proposal that we had fought for in November 2015, on July 30th, 2016, the Martin Luther King County Labor Council, the Coalition of City Unions and my office together hosted a town hall which brought together more than 200 people representing a powerful coalition of state and city unions, women's organizations, LGBTQ activists, social justice organizations, faith groups, and working people who came together to kick off a new movement for paid leave, both family and parental for all in Seattle. And it's the weight of this coalition and the solidarity that they have extended to City of Seattle workers, employees. That has kept the issue in limelight. The victories that are won by the city of Seattle employees will undoubtedly help us, in turn, to build momentum for paid family leave for all of Seattle's workers.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Kasper.
Speaker 3: And show. Thank you. I want to say thanks so much to people that have worked on this. And I want to also add something to the record. Councilmember Sawant said that she brought something forward a year ago. Many of others of us have done the same thing. And last year we reached out to the mayor's office, to our budget office to say, how can we do this and how can we make it work financially? And that's what we did. And I really respect the fact that our coalition of not just labor workers but internally have come together to make this reality. And I want to thank all of those in the coalition that worked with us at the University of Washington to this past summer, where we brought people together, including our state legislators, to say we can move beyond just the city of Seattle, but we want it to be done and a statewide basis. So progress has been made. I'm grateful to all who have worked on it, and I want to recognize how many people have actually worked on it to bring it bring us where we are today.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilmember Bagshaw. Councilmember Johnson.
Speaker 2: Just briefly, is the person up here on the guys that probably most recently took paid family leave. I want to say how excited I am, but also many of my constituents are about the retroactive nature of this. I've received several emails from constituents who work for the city asking questions as their partners or they themselves are entering the final term of labor, wondering when this program that's been long discussed but has taken a little while to get to us is going to get implemented. So many of those folks are very excited for this day coming today and the retroactive nature of it being back to January 1st I think is really important for us. Alex.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Councilmember Herbold, thank you.
Speaker 4: Just a bit to add, I do want to thank Councilmember Swan for bringing this issue forward back in 2015. I also am glad that we have reached the point that we are at today. I do appreciate this version of the bill because it also includes not just parental leave but family care leave, which I think is incredibly important for the people who work for our city. Keep it running because not everybody has children, but many of us have to take time to care for a loved one. And I think that is another really critical piece of equity that is lifted up with this version of the bill.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Great comments. Any further comments from any of our colleagues? Councilman Gonzalez Just take us home.
Speaker 6: Jesse That's what I'm trying to do. So I, I also want to just express some gratitude primarily to somebody who isn't with with us on the dais anymore. And that's to Councilmember Jean Gordon, who who really was the first person to advocate for municipal policy at the city of Seattle to provide paid parental leave. And that's the reason why our current workforce has a base of four weeks of paid parental leave. And I think that this council has recognized that four weeks is was certainly a step in the right direction, but needed to be needed to be more. We all know the science behind the benefits of paid parental leave in states and cities that have paid parental leave. In California in particular, when they polled, when they did the polling, they showed that that 90% of businesses who have paid parental leave actually saw benefits rather than adverse effects related to paid parental and paid family leave policies. But I really want to thank Councilmember former Councilmember Gordon for her vision and her tenacity in fighting for gender equity at the city, including the inaugural policy of four weeks. And this is really building on her legacy by adding an additional eight weeks to paid parental leave and by adding in the recognition that a lot of our employees may not be parents but do do have significant needs and obligations and responsibilities related to taking care of sick loved ones. And I'm looking forward to having the passage of this happen and to make sure that we keep track of the data and the usage to ensure that we are using this policy in a way that meaningfully impacts gender inequity that we experience here in our city.
Speaker 0: Well done and good for them. Thank you for those comments. It's been moved in second with a clerk. Please call the roll out the passage of the bill.
Speaker 1: Johnson.
Speaker 2: I. O'BRIEN Hi.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Bagshaw.
Speaker 2: Burgess Hi.
Speaker 1: Gonzalez, I. Herbold by President Herold Rite Aid in favor and unopposed.
Speaker 0: Thank you. The bill passed and chair of with Senate. Please read the next agenda item.
AN ORDINANCE relating to City employment; amending Sections 4.20.055, 4.26.010, 4.27.010, 4.27.020, and 4.27.100 of the Seattle Municipal Code and adding a new Chapter 4.29 to the Seattle Municipal Code, consisting of Sections 4.29.010, 4.29.020, 4.29.030, 4.29.040, 4.29.050, 4.29.060, 4.29.070, 4.29.080, 4.29.090, and 4.29.100, all to provide additional Paid Parental Leave and a new Paid Family Care Leave benefit to eligible city employees; establishing other conditions of implementing the new leave benefits; and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.