Study: U.S. One of the World's Worst Countries for Family/Medical Leave

Just as Big Business is getting revved up to go after Americans' meager Family and Medical Leave benefits, a university study of 173 countries shows that the United States ranks as one of the worst for providing leave for illnesses, new babies and family emergencies.

"When it comes to ensuring decent working conditions for families, U.S. public policies still lag dramatically behind all high-income countries, as well as many middle- and low-income countries," say the authors of "The Work, Family and Equity Index: How Does the United States Measure Up?"

The United States, for instance, is one of only five countries out of the 173 that don't guarantee paid maternity leave. The four other countries that don't are the African nations of Lesotho, Liberia and Swaziland and the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea.

The newly released research, from Harvard and McGill universities, also finds that:

• At least 145 countries require that employers provide paid sick leave, with 127 of them guaranteeing at least a week of sick time.
  
  
• Unlike the United States, 137 countries require paid annual leave, with 121 of them guaranteeing at least two weeks.

The study comes as the U.S. Labor Department is wrapping up a comment period that could lead to devastating changes for workers in the 13-year-old Family and Medical Leave Act, the first bill signed by President Bill Clinton.

CWA and other unions are righting to save the law. FMLA provides only unpaid leave and many employers make it difficult for workers to take any time off. Yet the business lobby and its Republican backers want to make it even harder for workers to use the law.

More than a hundred CWA members responded recently when the union asked who had used the law and how they felt about it, comments that are being included in CWA's response to the Labor Department.

Members pleaded with CWA and the DOL to save the law, saying it had changed — and even saved — their lives, or allowed them to take care of sick or dying family members. One member said FMLA gave her time to see doctors and specialists who ultimately cured her severe migraine and eye problems. "Without FMLA, my life would not be what is today," she wrote.

A telecom member, with an ill son, a dying grandmother and her own health problems said she fears she would be "fired and forced on to the systems of welfare and Social Security" without FMLA protection.

For updates on the FMLA review process and a link to the McGill University report on family leave worldwide, go to ga.cwa-union.org.