By Howard Koplowitz
City Councilman Joseph Addabbo (D−Howard Beach) called on the state Senate “to get serious about paid family leave,” contending Republicans are holding up a bill to pay workers after they give birth or must care for sick relatives through the state’s temporary disability insurance program.
Addabbo said the bill would only cost business owners 16 cents a week and that the insurance program, not businesses, would be paying employees for up to 12 weeks of paid family leave.
“These are tough times,” the councilman said, standing outside The Learning Tree in Middle Village with state Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan (D−Ridgewood) and paid family leave advocates. “I think [paid family leave is] something that would help these parents.”
Addabbo criticized his opponent, state Sen. Serphin Maltese (R−Glendale), for co−sponsoring the bill that would expand the insurance program to provide paid family leave but not seriously backing the legislation.
He said the bill has bipartisan support in the Senate, but Republican leaders refuse to bring it to the floor for a vote.
“We’re urging the state Senate to bring that bill forward for a vote,” the councilman said. “The paid family leave bill is a big benefit.”
Nolan said the state Assembly passed versions of paid family leave legislation.
“Sadly, our colleagues in the state Senate continue to just stall,” she said.
Businesses would benefit from paid family leave, Nolan argued, because employees are not as productive if they are working and thinking about a sick family member or a newborn baby at home.
“I am confident that the families of our district would benefit,” she said. “This would be a way to do it that would benefit businesses.”
Jane Thompson of the Working Families Party said Republicans in the Senate “have been playing games with this issue for far too long. We need leadership in the state Senate and that’s Joe Addabbo. We need the state Senate to come back. We need them to pass it.”
Martha Baker, a member of the New York Coalition for Paid Family Leave, said the proposal “is economically feasible” because businesses would not be paying for it.
She said 130,000 working women will give birth this year and “they can’t wait another year for paid family leave.”
One of those mothers, Woodhaven resident and Key Food employee Melanie Castellano, said she only received six weeks of paid leave after giving birth to a daughter Aug. 2.
“How am I supposed to get her situated in this new world if I don’t have time?” she said.
Addabbo said he would “go forward” with paid family leave legislation “if given the opportunity.”
On Friday, the councilman again criticized Maltese and Senate Republicans for proposing a bill sponsored by Maltese to help the city’s senior centers amid cuts from Mayor Michael Bloomberg but not adding an amendment to the legislation from Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith (D−St. Albans). The amendment, Addabbo said, would have kept senior center contracts that were cut by Bloomberg in place until further review.
“Again, Senate Republicans put their own interests ahead of the community,” Addabbo said in a statement. “Rather than stand up against Mayor Bloomberg, Senator Maltese and his colleagues folded.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e−mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 173.
