The Chronicle
In an effort to help staff members in both work and family life, the University announced in early August a new parental leave benefit for staff members, which will take effect Sept. 1.
Under the new policy, eligible staff members who are considered the primary caregivers in their families will be provided three weeks of base pay when they take time off of work for the birth or adoption of a child.
Paul Grantham, director of communications for Duke Human Resources, said the paid parental leave kicks in only after the new parent has used three weeks of vacation or sick time, but that the next three weeks are fully paid according to the employee's regularly scheduled hours of work.
Previously, University employees had to use vacation or sick time to receive pay for their time off. If they wanted more time off than was provided through vacation and sick time, they had to forego their paychecks for the additional days.
"We are delighted to be able to provide this support for Duke families," President Nan Keohane wrote in an e-mail. "We hope to demonstrate in this way that we understand the importance of parenting, and make it a bit easier to combine career and family."
The new benefit stems from Keohane's Women's Initiative, which she launched last year to study and respond to issues among women at the University. Grantham said the policy is a direct result of the 15-member Women's Initiative Steering Committee's efforts to garner feedback from women across Duke. Still, he noted that Keohane herself was instrumental in the change.
"Most organizations offer a parental benefit tied to a short-term disability, which means it's only accessible to the birth mother," Grantham said. "Ours is accessible to people giving birth and adopting, and it's accessible to mothers as well as fathers. [Keohane] made it pretty clear that parenting is not a disability and that parental leave should be something that is broadly accessible to the Duke community."
Donna Lisker, director of the Women's Center and a member of the Women's Initiative Steering Committee, said the new benefit is a great improvement over the previous policy. "Unpaid leave is impractical for most people, and not everyone has a large balance of sick and vacation leave," she wrote in an e-mail. "These three weeks, fully paid, are a great way to stretch the time new parents have with their children."
Lisker added that the benefit is not exclusively for women. "It helps primary caregivers, regardless of gender, and it helps families in general," she wrote.
Keohane's announcement of the new benefit Aug. 11 has met an overwhelmingly positive reaction from staff members who have or are expecting children, officials said.
Deirdre Gordon, program director for the Divinity School and a member of the steering committee for Parents@Duke, a group that advocates for rights for Duke employees that are parents, lauded the new policy as one of the University's first commitments to staff members that considers both work and home life.
"It recognizes that Duke employees are more than somebody who sits in a chair and works all day," she said.
Among those who will benefit from the new staff benefit is Julie Pruitt, program coordinator for Duke University Health System's ActivHealth. Pruitt, who is 12 weeks pregnant, said she was worried about her parental leave before the new policy was announced.
"I felt guilty about using a lot of my sick time when my husband was hospitalized unexpectedly last year. I wouldn't be able to spend that time with my baby," she said.
Pruitt said she could only have taken six weeks off with pay under the old policy, which she felt would have forced her to leave her baby at home when he was still too young. The alternative--taking an unpaid leave in order to get a full 12 weeks at home--was also a very difficult option. Under the new policy, however, she will be able to take nine weeks off with pay and hopes to work part time until she can resume as a full-time employee after 12 weeks.
Gordon noted, however, that there are a few things Parents@Duke would like clarified about the new benefit. For example, she said the group would like to learn more about the rationale behind the requirement that the employee be the "primary caregiver" for the new child.
"Right now, if both parents of the child work at Duke, one person has to be designated as the primary caregiver, but if one parent works at Duke and one parents works elsewhere, both can take a leave," she said. "There may be a very logical reason behind this policy, but we're just not aware of it right now, so it's something we would like clarified in the future."
Gordon added that there are still many discrepancies between the faculty and the staff policy, and that the University should continue to look at making parental benefits more consistent for people who work at the University. Under the parental leave benefit for faculty, new parents can take a full semester off for the birth or adoption of a child.
Grantham said it is difficult to compare the faculty and staff parental leave benefits because faculty do not receive vacation time, which staff members can use toward their time off as new parents.
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