WALMART ASSOCIATE CAT DAVIS TESTIFIES IN SUPPORT OF FAMILY ACT

 

Act would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave and cover all employees in all companies

 

NATIONWIDE — Today, Carolyn ‘Cat’ Davis, a United for Respect leader and Walmart associate of 11 years, attended the Paid Family Leave Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C. to testify in support of the FAMILY Act. If passed, the Act would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave and cover all employees in all companies, no matter the size.

“I’d been working part-time at Walmart for three years when I became pregnant with my son. At the time, Walmart didn’t offer any paid family leave. For about 500,000 part-time associates today, they still don’t,” said Cat Davis. “Our current system leaves so many parents and caregivers in a bind where we’re forced to make impossible choices between losing our income or not taking care of our families. Working families like mine need national legislation like the FAMILY Act.”

Walmart associates taking action with United for Respect, alongside PL+US, called on the company in 2017 to publicly commit to a fair paid family leave policy. While the expansion of paid family leave for full-time Walmart employees represents a milestone in associates’ work to hold the company accountable, it is not enough.

Currently, the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year, and only covers employees who have worked for their employer for at least a year and worked at least 1,250 hours in the last 12 months with that employer. Additionally, employers must have 50 or more employees for the FMLA to apply to employees.

For more information about this briefing, please contact Taylor Campbell at (202) 854-9571 or [email protected].