Family Leave
Pastor’s Note, The Door Newsletter, September 2024
Thank you to everyone who has prayed and expressed support for my family as we’ve traveled down an unexpected path with my granddaughter Nora. On June 21, a mass was discovered through ultrasound and CT scan. On July 2, surgery successfully removed the mass, which was identified as rhabdomyosarcoma. On July 15, chemotherapy began, with a projected duration of 67 weeks. We are grateful for the competent, compassionate treatment by the medical team at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, as well as the care offered by people of Longview Heights Baptist Church in Olive Branch, MS. But much about this journey remains a mystery, and it’s difficult to see beyond the next few steps. We’re trusting that God will provide for Nora’s needs and ours, one day at a time.
Our circumstances create a teachable moment about the topic of family leave, defined as “an excused absence from work for the purpose of dealing with family matters.” On the one hand, as administrator of a small organization with a staff of five, I’m sensitive to the stresses that family leave imposes on an organization. How long can working members of staff cover for absent members? What are the costs in productivity? When must payment of wages and benefits be curtailed in order to preserve the organization’s health? On the other hand, as a pastor who regular interacts with people in need, and member of a family faced with a medical crisis, I’m sensitive to the support required so that one life-changing crisis doesn’t crush a family’s well-being forever.
Recently, the Presbyterian Church USA amended its constitution to require paid family leave for pastors (Book of Order, G-2.0804). Conversations about the amendment featured reports of pastors exhausting vacation banks, incurring large debt, and finding their positions jeopardized by governing boards insensitive to the needs of a clergy family facing a major health crisis. Practicing generosity in family leave is based, in part, on the notion that the Church should provide an example to our larger society about best practices in such situations. At the end of 2023, our church’s personnel policies and pastor’s terms of call were amended to include this provision. I am grateful that the session has approved family leave for me, one week per month for four months, to provide support to Nora and her parents.
Family-leave provisions for Nora’s parents, as best I understand them, are not as robust. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires that employees of public agencies, public and private elementary and secondary schools, and companies with 50 or more employees, be granted up to twelve weeks leave. But it does not require that the leave be paid. When sick days and vacation are exhausted, the paycheck may end. Federal law requires that health benefits be maintained during the leave. But employers may require employees to continue payment for their share of premiums, even at a time when they are no longer receiving a paycheck.
These realities prompt some questions. For those of you who are employed, do you know your employer’s family-leave policies and provisions? Are you prepared to face a major illness with a combination of employer benefits, insurance products, and personal savings? For those of you who are in positions of responsibility and influence, does your organization have a policy in place to deal justly and compassionately with employees when such an unexpected event happens? What better alternatives may there be than simply expecting employees to give up their positions and income to make room for others, or to incur debt that ultimately leads to medical bankruptcy? In our public advocacy, are we paying attention to policy proposals that may offer better solutions than currently exist? What role should churches play?
In the search for answers, may God grant us wise minds and compassionate hearts.
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