Natick Town Meeting member says municipal employees need Paid Family and Medical Leave

To the Editor:

More than 200,000 municipal workers in Massachusetts are currently ineligible for the state’s comprehensive, cost-effective and equitable Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits; this spring, Natick Town Meeting has an opportunity to bring 2,000 of those workers into PFML coverage.

When Massachusetts’ Paid Family and Medical Leave law went into effect in 2019, municipal employers were exempt from PFML withholding and their employees were ineligible to apply for PFML benefits unless the municipality voted to adopt the law and join PFML . As a dedicated Natick resident and a PFML administrator for my employer, I know employees of our town have needed benefits provided by PFML since the law was passed and need them even more in 2024 after serving our municipality through a global pandemic and historic rises in health care costs and consumer prices. I am sponsoring Article 28 at Natick’s 2024 Annual Town Meeting to accept Paid Family and Medical Leave for our municipal employees.

I was shocked to learn last year that municipal employees are not covered by PFML, and I first brought this to Town Meeting last fall. Since then, I have learned municipalities are also exempt from the 2015 paid sick leave laws. Only one bargaining unit in Natick currently has any paid parental leave, and it totals five days. Most town policies prohibit using more than five sick days to care for a family member.

Without PFML, municipalities have fallen far behind private employers and state agencies in their paid family and medical leave offerings. The Department of Family Medical Leave fiscal 2023 report details that 7,649 applications were rejected because the applicant’s employer was exempt from PFML. Municipalities will continue to struggle with employee retention and do not have the resources to compete on leave benefits without PFML.

How much will PFML cost Natick? The PFML withholding rate is 0.88% of taxable wages; for Natick, this would be $927,556 annually, paid from both employer and employee payroll withholding. Some leave that's already paid by the town, such as the five-day parental leave or sick bank pay, could be reimbursed per the state’s PFML regulations. The entire PFML contribution is less than 5% of the more than $18.7 million the town pays annually in health care premiums and would represent just 4% of the Shared Expenses - Other Employee Benefits budget.

PFML liability is a predictable cost, improves employee retention and health outcomes, and reduces the risk of more costly negotiations later on. When municipalities are forced into negotiations for similar leave benefits without PFML, they're responsible for paying the benefits when employees take leave.

The City of Newton is still trying to figure out just how much a teacher strike plus 40 days of paid leave will cost since it will all be paid from its municipal budget. If Natick adopted PFML, the town is only responsible for the withholding liability; the state's Department of Family Medical Leave would review, administer and pay benefit claims.

"What do town employees want?" you might ask. To get this answer, I set up a table at Natick's recent employee benefits fair to talk about PFML. Although I was eventually asked to leave the event — despite the fact that I'm a town employee through my Finance Committee appointment — I had some great conversations with employees who had this to say:

• "I didn't even know I wasn't covered by PFML."
• "I recently started in Natick from the private sector and I'm starting over with no sick or vacation time and didn't realize PFML wasn't an option."
• "We need this!"
• "I wish I had this last year when my spouse had a stroke — I burned through all of my sick and vacation time and it still wasn't enough."
• "Going unpaid for leave would ruin my family's finances, but it could happen to any of us."
• "The PFML employee withholding is less than the annual short-term disability premium and has better coverage."

The Massachusetts Teachers Association spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting the initial push for PFML in 2018, supported legislative amendments in 2019 and 2021 to bring municipalities in, and is currently featuring 5,000 teachers on the North Shore who advocate for PFML benefits. The largest group of employees in Natick, by head count and by payroll spending, is our educators; while this is a valued and important group, I want PFML benefits for everyone who works for the town, regardless of union representation, seniority or full-time vs. part-time status.

Article 28 provides access to benefits beginning January 2025 — the town administration, Select Board and School Committee currently have no plans to implement comparable benefits before July 2026. It's unlikely they will ever act on PFML in the future unless Town Meeting legislates them into action. While I have heard comments from town officials that they're afraid to be the first municipality to make this decision, I am asking my fellow Town Meeting members to join me in making a brave choice to solve this problem now.

Kat Monahan

Natick

Editor's note: Kat Monahan is a Natick Town Meeting member from Precinct 3

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Natick Town Meeting member says municipal employees need Paid Family and Medical Leave