Family leave update after this morning’s pay bargaining: CFPB doesn’t care about families

NTEU 335 is disappointed and disgusted by how the CFPB has handled the entire process of putting paid parental leave into effect, and you should be also. While this morning's experience was particularly concerning, we thought it might be helpful to walk through a timeline of exactly what has happened, what hasn't happened on a timely basis, and how the Bureau wants to place you at a disadvantage compared to other financial regulators.

Timeline of events

• December 2019: President Trump signs into law the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act gives workers access to up to 12 weeks of paid time off for the birth, adoption or placement of a new child.
  • Only births, adoptions or placements that occur on or after Oct. 1, 2020, are eligible under FEPLA
  • Counts against unpaid FMLA leave
  • Is only available after 12 months of qualifying federal employment 
• Late Spring 2020: NTEU begins work on a paid parental leave proposal to bring to the Bureau to move beyond the bare legal requirement and meet the needs of agency employees:
  • 16 weeks instead of 12 weeks of paid parental leave
  • Retroactivity for FEPLA benefits to January 1, 2020 (roughly nine months ago, wink wink)
  • Would not count against unpaid FMLA leave
  • Available immediately upon hire
  • 16 weeks of paid personal medical leave, paid family medical leave, and paid leave arising from the active duty of a family member
• All summer: when expecting parents emailed Human Capital representatives about whether they would be eligible for this benefit, they received misleading and mixed messages, with the Bureau insinuating that they did not have plans to implement the leave and couldn't definitively say it would be available starting Oct. 1.
• Sept. 7: The union tried to present our paid family and medical leave proposal to the Bureau, but Jeff Sumberg (head of Human Capital) did not attend the meeting.
• Sept. 14: The union presented our paid family and medical leave proposal to Labor Relations and Jeff Sumberg, at which point they said they would not discuss the proposal until compensation bargaining.
• Sept. 21: After the NTEU 335's email campaign, the Bureau agrees to meet with the union again about paid parental leave...to announce they will follow the law. And that they won't bargain about this separately from compensation.
• Sept. 23: The Bureau finally officially announces that they will follow the law...5 business days before it's supposed to go into effect. COOOOL. Thanks for the heads up.

What happened this morning in pay bargaining

• Before we could even begin, Ari (Labor Relations) said that they would not commit to any tentative or separate agreement on paid parental leave, and they would only consider it among the whole package of pay bargaining (aka, they will continue to hold up and use parental leave as a bargaining chip).
• The union put an offer on the table: agree to make parental leave retroactive to Jan. 1 2020, immediately available upon hire, and not count against unpaid FMLA leave, starting NOW. If the Bureau would agree to that and give expecting and new parents some security, then we would withdraw the rest of our proposal for additional paid leave.
• The CFPB refused. 
• The CFPB refused to agree to these small measures that would mean a world of security, economic stability, and basic human dignity for some of our employees, especially during the pandemic when so much is at risk for families' finances and health.
• Based on their past performance (I mean, that timeline ain't pretty...) I can't say we were shocked, but we were deeply disturbed that management is more interested in using this, the basic right to raise and care for your family, as bargaining leverage, than in improving the lives and wellbeing of employees. 
• Far from being a model workplace, at this point, the CFPB is refusing to be even a comparable workplace, and implement similar measures, like the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, and SEC. We are outraged.

What comes next and how you can help your fellow employees

We refuse to treat this like any other regular part of compensation negotiations. We believe that employees deserve to have this now. We believe that employees' and families' lives and safety nets should not be a bargaining chip. It is well within management's power to give employees this NOW, and we need your help demanding the CFPB extend paid parental leave to be retroactive, available immediately, and not count against FMLA.

We need to continue to put the pressure on to support CFPB employees who would be most affected. Here’s how you can join other CFPB employees and help right now:

1. Click the button below to send a pre-filled email about federal paid parental leave to Donna Roy (COO) so she knows you support NTEU 335's proposal to meet the needs of Bureau families and not tie this up in compensation bargaining.
2. Ask three other colleagues to send this, too!