NEWS

Jupiter officials will take another look at paid parental leave

Sam Howard
showard@pbpost.com
Jupiter Town Hall was built in 1981. An addition was built in 1990.

JUPITER — Nearly four years after a proposal fizzled out to offer paid parental leave for town employees, Jupiter’s vice mayor is restarting talks to implement a similar plan.

Vice Mayor Ilan Kaufer is working on a resolution that, at least for now, would direct town staff to find specific ways Jupiter could beef up its family leave policy.

Jupiter Human Resources Director Nikki Carpenito and Town Manager Matt Benoit have already started looking into it and sent a memo to council members last month.

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Through the Family and Medical Leave Act, the town is required to offer up to 12 weeks of protected, though not necessarily paid, leave to eligible employees for events that can include the birth or adoption of a child.

Town employees must use sick and vacation days to take this leave. Once those are exhausted, they can seek donated hours from other employees or go on unpaid leave.

As of mid-May, the 90 town employees under the age of 35 had, on average, enough accrued vacation and sick time to cover about 61.5 percent of the 12 weeks of protected leave, according to the memo.

The memo ultimately suggested revising Jupiter’s policy to allow employees to accrue sick and vacation days while on donated leave under the FMLA.

“By allowing this change, we will provide additional leave benefits for the employee when they return to work for any unexpected sick days or needed vacation days following the birth or adoption of a child,“ the officials wrote.

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Kaufer likes that idea and wants to implement it, but said he’d like the town to go even further.

“To me, I have a fundamental difference of opinion with what the benefits are now versus a new benefit that I think needs to be created,“ Kaufer said Tuesday.

He added that the timing seems better than it was in 2016, referencing the 2019 law signed by President Donald Trump that offers 12 weeks of paid parental leave for federal employees.

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“I think this is probably the only issue that President Trump and Hillary Clinton agreed on,” Kaufer said.

West Palm Beach,Palm Beach County and Wellington have enacted similar policies since Kaufer brought the issue to Jupiter council in 2016. All three offer six weeks paid to qualifying employees.

In Jupiter, however, Kaufer’s 2016 proposal was met with a tepid response by his colleagues on council.

But he now has an ally in newly elected Councilman Cameron May, who went on paternity leave from his job at Palm Beach County Fire Rescue after the birth of his son in March.

At his work, May and his colleagues can take up to three months of paid parental leave.

They first must use half of their annual sick leave stockpile, which May said typically works out to 60 hours.

Then employees receive 65% of their pay for the rest of their time off — but they can use their own accrued time off to cover the remaining 35%, according to the firefighter union’s collective bargaining agreement with the county.

May cited the importance of parents bonding with their newborns and the risk of postpartum depression. He agrees with Kaufer that the town should add to its paid leave policy.

“I really strongly feel most employers should model their paid parental leave like that,” May said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

showard@pbpost.com

@SamuelHHoward