Join the AUSTIN City Council and Firefighters, Police and Ems Medics and SUPPORT PARENTAL EQUITY AND MATERNAL LEAVE FOR PUBLIC SAFETY PROFESSIONALS
Contact the Austin City Manager Today at
(512) 974-2200
Tell spencer cronk that you support maternal leave and parental leave for all public safety professionals
What’s at Stake?
On December 9th, 2021, the Austin City Council unanimously directed City Manager Cronk “to develop implementation and funding options to extend paid parental leave benefits, including alternate return to work options, for sworn employees of AFD, APD, and EMS”
ALL other City Employees already have parental leave
although the city council unanimously supported the resolution, due to a limitation of the city charter, only the city manager can approve this leave program.
This is why we need your help
Contact the Austin City Manager Today at
(512) 974-2200
Tell spencer cronk that you support maternal leave and parental leave for all public safety professionals
the vocabulary
Maternal Leave: The proposed Maternal or Pregnancy leave, if approved by the City Manager, is leave that public safety workers could use when recovering from child birth. This leave would allow these public safety workers needed time to return to the state of conditioning needed to perform at the highest physical level required for firefighters, police officers and EMS medics.
Parental Leave: Granted to ALL City of Austin Employees EXCEPT to firefighters, Police Officers and EMS Medics. This leave type provides up to 6 weeks for City of Austin Employees for adoption, fostering or the birth of a child.
Resolution Number 20211209-060: City Council Resolution directing Manager Cronk to to develop implementation and funding options to extend paid parental leave benefits, including alternate return to work options, for sworn employees o fAFD, APD, and EMS.
Click here of language of City Council Resolution
City of Austin Charter: the basic document that defines the organization, powers, functions and essential procedures of Austin City government.
current news on City Council Resolution
Deeper Dive from the Female Firefighter’s Perspective
Summary
Providing Maternity Leave for our female firefighters would be inexpensive, support and provide much needed relief to current birthing female firefighters now and greatly assist in recruiting future females to the job of firefighting.
Firefighter Maternity Leave Program
According to the US Department of Labor, only about 4 percent of fire fighters in the United States are women. The Austin Fire Department (AFD) proudly boasts almost 8% women among its ranks. Even though AFD hiring practices display robust female candidate numbers, attracting women to the fire service continues to be a challenge in this highly male-dominated industry. One reason for this is a lack of employer support after the birth of a child. While the City of Austin offers 240 hours of paid parental leave to both mothers and fathers for their civilian employees who qualify for FMLA after the birth of a child, adoption of a child, or foster placement, AFD offers no paid parental benefits for the Civil Service parents in the department. A first step would be to support female birthing firefighters by providing paid maternity leave. Not only would this send a strong message of support to our current women firefighters but it would also improve our recruitment of new women to AFD. This important benefit sends a message that we are truly embracing the culture of diversity that our website boasts stating that “recruiting and hiring even more women into Austin Fire has been a cornerstone of our efforts for many years now” (joinafd.com).
The AFA proposes an inexpensive solution to assist with these efforts to attract more women into the Austin Fire Department. In fact, it would elevate the City of Austin and the Austin Fire Department to be among some of the most woman-friendly fire departments across the United States in supporting female firefighters and their families. AFA knows that the City of Austin values this because the COA benefits guide states that “COA is dedicated to fostering healthy babies and families and is proud to be a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite.”
Background
On average over the last five years, two female AFD firefighters gave birth to a child each year. Although female firefighters can request up to 12 weeks of protected (but unpaid) leave under FMLA, they still must use their own accrued sick and vacation leave for the recovery of childbirth and starting the physical training to return to their pre-pregnancy firefighter positions. Short-term disability (if approved) only provides pay for 12-26 days (depending on the type of delivery) and is only 70% of the firefighter’s salary.
Often, women begin families early in their firefighting careers and do not have enough leave accumulated to cover the recovery time necessary after birthing a child. This forces some to utilize leave without pay, exhaust all of their accumulated leave (leaving no time off for caring for their sick child in their first year of life, needed vacations and emergent family issues that will arise with a new family). Sadly, some women in AFD feel that must choose between their career and having a family. In fact, some firefighters have left AFD and others have chosen to move into non-operations positions where a return to the physical condition of the pre-pregnancy firefighter might not be so rushed due to a shortfall of accrued leave. Not only are these new mothers faced with recovering from the trauma of childbirth and the challenges of being a new parent but there is the added pressure of being expected to return to their assignments in very good physical shape so that they can do the physically demanding functions required by their job duties.
Fortunately, the level of stress these decisions put onto a new mother can be easily and inexpensively alleviated with the following proposal.
Paid Maternity Leave Proposal
Provide the following for new mothers Paid Maternity Leave for 4 months for recovery after birth
This time is important to fully recover physically from pregnancy and childbirth and start preparing to return to one of the most physically demanding and dangerous jobs as a firefighter.
Cost
Based on the 5 year history of AFD having 2 female firefighters giving birth per year, the estimated cost would be approximately $60k per firefighter or $120k total. The cost of this program is to pay for the backfill added time firefighters that would have to fill in for the missing operations firefighter position while the female firefighter is recovering from birth and preparing to come back to operations. We do recognize that this is a recurring cost but we would like to trial the program using one-time money and then reassess the program effectiveness during contract negotiations and/or budget FY23 budget.
YouR AUSTIN FIREFIGHTERS URGE YOU TO Contact the Austin City Manager Today at (512) 974-2200
Tell spencer cronk that you support material leave and parental leave for all public safety Professionals
Want to Learn More?
Contact Bob Nicks, President of Austin Firefighters Association at 512-217-3474 or at bob_nicks@yahoo.com.
POLITICAL AD PAID FOR BY THE AUSTIN FIREFIGHTERS PUBLIC SAFETY FUND