Friday, June 15, 2007

AFSCME Wins Paid Leave to Participate in Your Children’s Educational Activities


One of the 2007 Legislative Priorities for AFSCME Local 965 was a bill providing paid leave for state employees’ children’s educational activity. We were successful, and now each year, all full-time benefits eligible employees will receive 8 hours of paid leave for the purpose of participating in their children’s educational activities. Unused leave is not subject to carry-over and is not compensable at retirement, so use it for the sake of your kids.

Children are defined as any person enrolled in pre-kindergarten through grade 12 (preK-12) and who is related to the state employee as: natural child, adopted child, stepchild, foster child, grandchild, legal guardian or any other legal capacity where the employee is acting as a parent.

Educational activity is defined as: parent-teacher conferences, participation in school-sponsored tutoring, school-sponsored volunteer programs, field trips, classroom programs, academic competitions, and assisting with athletic, music or theater programs. Please note that this does not include attendance at sports activities.

This leave goes into effect July 1st. For 2007 only, you will receive the full 8 hours to use between July 1st and December 31st. After January 1st, 2008 it will be 8 hours per calendar year. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Beth Arbuthnot of UA Human Resources at 5-6209 or betha@uark.edu. If any supervisor trys to deny you paid leave for your children's educational activities, contact any officer or executive board member of AFSCME Local 965.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So if you don't have children, you don't get squat?

Anonymous said...

So it's 8 hours for 1/2 the year then 8 hours for a full year? Has anybody ever heard of pro-rated?Did the UofA lose their minds and decide to discriminate against those employees who either do not have children or whose children no longer fit their nice little definition? What about the developmentally disabled?

Anonymous said...

My kids are already out of school, but this would have been nice to have had instead of having to take vacation time. I'm glad that it is now available to our members who do have children in school.