PWSA board approves paid leave policy for employees

Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority employees who are victims of domestic violence will have access to paid sick leave under a policy unanimously approved Friday by the board of directors.

Directors also approved up to six weeks of paid parental leave for employees with new babies. The policy also applies to new adoptions and foster children.

“My understanding is we’ve done financial analysis on this to know that it has minimal impact on payroll and budget,” said Paul Leger, the board chairman.

Under the policy, victims of domestic violence can have up to two weeks paid leave after an incident.

Mayor Bill Peduto in 2018 issued an identical domestic violence policy for non-union city employees. The city in 2015 began offering up to six weeks of paid parental leave for new moms and dads.

The National Partnership for Women & Families estimates that 20 million people in the United States experience domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking from a partner each year. An estimated 1,300 women die and nearly 2 million are injured each year as a result of domestic violence.

PWSA Executive Director Robert Weimar said the authority also offers free domestic violence counseling to employees.

“We don’t want our staff to have to worry about losing their job after one of these events,” he said.

He said the policies make PWSA more competitive in searching for new employees.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re adopting these policies because they do appear to have far more interest particularly to the younger folks coming in,” he said.