PARENTAL LEAVE

WHEREAS, women and girls have been stereotyped into specific roles which have traditionally hindered intellectual development; and

WHEREAS, present national awareness of the potential of women and girls has changed; and

WHEREAS, industry and the federal courts are beginning to readjust institutional and industrial attitudes regarding hiring and promotional practices for female employees; and

WHEREAS, the federal government has seen fit to readjust the child care deductible margin claimed against income tax; and

WHEREAS, the general forces of industry are instituting on-the-job child care centers to enable parents to work and be near their offspring; and

WHEREAS, although local boards of education recognize non-attendance days with pay for a variety of reasons; and

WHEREAS, women have risen up demanding the right to control their own bodies constantly pushing for abolishment of existing abortion laws; and

WHEREAS, boards of education across the nation have often abused the women's right of maternity leave and have used it as punishment in threatening female teachers' job security (teachers returning from maternity leave are placed at the bottom of the replacement list and/or as floating substitutes at lesser salary); and

WHEREAS, many boards of education force upon pregnant women teachers layoff time limits not in accord with local workmen's compensation standards and consider neither the need nor the want of the teacher; and

WHEREAS, the amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adopted by Congress in 1972, extend the sex discrimination provisions to public and private educational institutions; and

WHEREAS, the Federal Equal Opportunities Employment (EEOC) has adopted regulations published in the Federal Register pursuant to this new law requiring that maternity leave be treated like any other temporary physical disability (i.e., sick leave):

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers take an active stand in protecting all women 's rights of job security; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers actively push toward state and federal legislation that allows child care deductions against income tax for male and female teachers from their income; and

RESOLVED, that child bearing leave be instituted and considered as medical disability leave, accruing the same benefits; and

RESOLVED, that child bearing leave be granted to any teacher without pay and without penalty--married or single, male or female--who adopts, bears, or assumes legal responsibility for a child; and

RESOLVED, that such leaves be granted at the request of the teacher; and

RESOLVED, that these leaves for child care can be terminated, by the teacher, at any time prior to the end of a requested leave and that the returning teacher will go back to the same job at the salary step that is appropriate, just as in the case of a return from sick leave with no loss of seniority rights; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT notify all locals of the new federal Civil Rights law relating to maternity leave in public and private educational institutions and send each local a copy of the necessary EEOC complaint form to file against school districts which fail to comply with the law.