Legislative bill paves the way for maternity leave for female state troopers and corrections workers

The Nebraska Legislature advanced a bill Tuesday guaranteeing maternity leave for state troopers, corrections officers and teachers in correctional facilities.

Sen. Dunixi Guereca pitched the measure, saying that police agencies approached him with the idea to help retain their employees.

“We’re losing qualified, trained, state employees because they want to give birth,” Guereca said. “They want to have a kid.”

Sen. Ashlei Spivey and others supported the initiative, particularly since it does not expand the state budget, which is currently in a deficit.

“We know that if there are no parental leave policies, then people are choosing to stay or not,” Spivey said. “And usually, that means women exiting the workforce. And so I think that it’s really important, just from an equitable standpoint, what language we use, and it really should be parental leave.”

Sen. Bob Anderson worried that the maternity leave policy might drive up the state budget. Guereca denied that it would hurt the budget, saying that employees simply take sick time, vacation time or unpaid leave as it is. He added that the police agencies that approached him say it will make little to no impact on their budgets.

Sen. Kathleen Kauth changed the language in the bill, adding in a definition of maternity leave applying to a woman described as women whose biological sex matches what they were assigned under birth state law.

Guereca said the specific definition of a woman was not in the Department of Administrative Services’ maternity leave language. He expressed concern that a single father might not be able to adopt a child or that the state could be left vulnerable to lawsuits if the language in Kauth’s bill is not carefully written. He asked for more time to review her amendment.

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