Slate provides a serious look at the state of maternity leave.  Recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts law did not protect individuals who took more time than explicitly stated in the state law – 8 weeks.  In the case under review, the employee had relied on verbal permission.

See Slate article for an understanding of the limits of state and federal law and how badly we lag behind all other developed countries in the world on the matter of paid leave.   See Slate:    slate.com/id/2263065

Administrative Support of Paid Sick Days

The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor, Mr. Seth Harris,
testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and announced the
Obama Administration’s support for the Healthy Families Act during the
hearing: “The Cost of Being Sick: H1N1 and Paid Sick Days.”

The Healthy Families Act offers an important opportunity to provide
workers with economic security by assuring that they have the ability to
stay home if they are sick without fear of losing their jobs or being
forced to go to work sick because they cannot afford to stay home.

“It is regrettable that Congress has yet to pass legislation requiring large employers to offer paid days off for workers who are sick or have to care for family members.”

All state workers should be allowed to earn paid sick leave.  Orders to the public to stay home with swine flu are particularly difficult to almost half of Massachusetts workers who do not have even a single day of paid sick leave.