MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Bills giving paid parental leave to state employees and teachers did not pass this year, but sponsors said Tuesday they will try again next year.
A separate bill to create a workers compensation program for education employees will also be refiled in 2025.
Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, who sponsored House Bill 309, told Alabama Daily News that paid maternity leave is offered in all southern states except for Alabama and Mississippi.
“We just definitely have a need to provide this benefit for state employees and teachers, and we got close,” Shaver said.
Her bill in its original form and filed in early March would have given female and male state employees eight weeks of paid leave for the birth of a child or adoption of a child less than age 1.
In late April, Rep. Debbie Wood, R-Valley, and Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, filed bills to allow 12 weeks of paid leave to teachers for births, adoptions, stillbirths and miscarriages.
Shaver’s employee bill was scaled back in a Senate committee to six weeks. Later, Figures’ teachers’ bill was modified, over Democrats’ objections, in a Senate committee to include state employees too and offer six weeks of leave to women for the birth of a child and women and men for adoptions.
Earlier this month, Figures got her Senate colleagues to amend that bill to eight weeks of paid leave for state employees and teachers and to include leave for women who suffer stillbirths. The bill was approved in the Senate but not transmitted to the House, dying in the final days of session.
Currently, teachers and state employees can use their paid leave for the birth of a child. Teachers earn about 10 days of paid time off per year. This is the first year paid maternity leave has received significant discussion in either chamber.
Shaver said she compromised to reduce the time off to six weeks and only for the mother of a live baby or an adoption with the intention to add more in a later session. She said she planned to add fathers and stillbirths back into the bill if the compromised version passed, as well as increasing the time off back to eight weeks.
“I asked for what I wanted, which was eight weeks. It’s really hard. It’s not just the recovery and bonding,” she said. “When a mom has a baby, it’s not just that, there are other issues as well. Such as care, daycare options.”
Shaver said a main reason for paid leave was because of the financial hardship a family may endure. She said not only are daycare options expensive, but most will not take a baby unless they are at least two to three months old.
Last year, Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer led a study group for Gov. Kay Ivey on state employee retention and recruitment. Paid parental leave was one of its recommendations. In March, Shaver said employee turnover was at a 20-year high of 15 percent.
“The federal government offers 12 weeks, the city of Birmingham offers, I believe, 12 weeks, and a lot of private employers are also offering this benefit,” she said. “It’s becoming quite popular to attract and keep employees.”
Wood said she wanted to pass a bill for teachers because of how much they do for children throughout the state.
“We tell them to be good to our kids. But what about them being good to their own? You know, what are we doing to encourage that?” Wood told ADN. “So, I’m praying that we find a funding source that will get right back on us very quickly.”
Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who chairs the Education Trust Fund Committee, said the maternity compromise bill did not pass because there was not a reliable estimate on the cost. He said births and adoptions are an initial step for paid leave, but that state employees and teachers should have equal benefits. Wood said the funding source was not decided yet and declined to discuss potential sources.
“To me, that’s the starting point,” Orr told ADN. “Not to exclude anything else, but that’s what we look at first, and go from there.”
Figures could not be reached for comment this week.
Teachers’ comp bill coming back
Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, said Tuesday he will refile in 2025 his bill to give K-12 teachers and other personnel injured on the job a wage replacement program. Senate Bill 278 would have given a permanently disabled education staffer two-thirds pay for life. Those who would be covered in the program include teachers, janitorial and cafeteria staff and bus drivers.
The bill died without a House vote last week.
“There were a lot of bills that were good bills that were indirect casualties of gambling and collateral damage,” Givhan said Tuesday about Thursday’s last-minute negotiations on whether legislation to allow a lottery and expanded gambling in the state would be resurrected in the final hours of session. It was not.
Givhan said he’ll likely start next year with the compromise version of the bill that came out of a House committee this month.
“Everybody acknowledged it needs to change,” Givhan said. “The Board of Adjustment acknowledged that it was not the way to handle workers’ comp, the school boards, the school superintendents (associations) acknowledged something needed to be done. So, the devil’s in the details on exactly how we do it?”
The Alabama Board of Adjustment reviews claims for damages from those hurt within a state agency or property. It has previously been sued over the handling of teachers’ claims.
The bill creates the five-member Public Education Employee Injury Compensation Board to administer the program and oversee the benefits paid to injured employees.
Alabama Daily News’ Mary Sell contributed to this report.