Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: Netflix's Parental Leave Policy


Given all the attention to Netflix's parental leave policy announced recently, I thought it was appropriate to point readers towards some additional articles on the topic.  Unsurprisingly, there are supporters and critics of the new policy.  I think it is worth a look at both sides of the argument, in order to get a better understanding of how this policy will impact workers going forward.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


The Challenge Facing Netflix's Parental Leave Policy...& a Possible Solution?

Business Insider has a well thought out look at one of the main challenges facing Netflix's parental leave policy:  The uneasiness/unwillingness of workers to actually use the leave provided by the new policy out of fear that they will become expendable, not be able to catchup on the work they miss, burden their coworkers, etc.  The same line of reasoning often applies to why workers do not use all of their vacation time.  However, the article notes a possible solution to the issue, should Netflix embrace the concept.



As Rex Huppke over at The Chicago Tribune puts it, paid maternity leave in the United States is less than adequate.  In fact, he writes "When it comes to paid maternity leave, we, as a country, suck."  That is certainly one way to be address the matter.  But as Rex points out, this Netflix policy moves in a bold direction, one that many companies would be wise to follow, given the need for longer parental leave in this country.  Note, I included this article for a simple reason:  Rex makes some sweeping arguments against proponents of the new policy that I think readers can draw from in order to better understand exactly how this policy will impact Netflix workers (and potentially others), going forward.



This is a thorough article from the Huffington Post that delves into the Netflix workforce that will not be able to utilize the new parental leave policy.  As the article notes, treating these Netflix workers in the DVD distribution centers differently could prove to be a potential risk that could backfire.  For now, these workers are excluded from the new policy...but could that change?  Perhaps; time will tell.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per
Post a Comment
Read more