Ensuring Digital Signature Lawfulness for Leave of Absence Agreement in Mexico

How to eSign a document: digital signature lawfulness for Leave of Absence Agreement in Mexico

it's time to welcome back our panelists for one final discussion tonight State officials are debating a proposed bill that would create a Paid Family Leave program for workers across the state that have approved Senate Bill 11 would require employers and employees to make regular payments to a state fund that would allow qualified employees 12 weeks of paid leave to care for personal Family Matters this bill comes one year after State lawmakers you might remember this created a mandate that businesses provide paid sick leave to their workers and Crystal is mandated Family Leave The Logical Next Step here or there are some landmines that could be stepped on along the way that are unseen it just seems so simple but something seems debatable here curious where you are I'm not the model business owner to say especially when I when I've served on you know various different economic development task forces for both Rio Rancho and Albuquerque you know the perspective of Paid Family Leave doesn't it doesn't help the business owner with another regulation or regular military policy that they have to take into consideration however one of the arguments I used to make about paid family leave or paid sick leave in this instance is that the business owner really needs to evolve themselves into being a more family friendly employer or more ethical employer and so for example my company does pay family leave and we're like you had mentioned off air is that wow you guys are a little bit more for leaning and Progressive no it's just the right thing to do because if all of our employees of a birthing age or most importantly all of our employees are actually at a point where their parents are aging Family Leave is incredibly important no matter where it is and so and that's what's very common in our industry So Family Leave is just an example of how you can be a better employer whether the Mandate is a good mandate to begin with it is really challenging because business owners don't like to be told what to do yeah in the end of the discussion and I think you know we're well we were talking off camera you know there is a really important Clause to take into consideration in this bill is how is it going to be regulated hwa actually is very well regular hwa being the healthy workplaces act right and so HR companies working with ours it was very easy for every one hour or for every 30 hours you work there's one hour end of discussion that's not hard to manage and and monitor if you have the right resources this one you have to pay the state you can even hear secretary Nair in a lot of the in the interviews that she's really nervous if this actually becomes a thing in Workforce Solutions interesting points here employee years employees Senator must have worked for 90 days to qualify and the cost to employers would be four dollars for every thousand dollars of wages and employees would start would pay five dollars for every thousand dollars of wages sounds pretty simple so far but my question is Crystal brought up something interesting that there's a lot of nuance here depending on the age range of folks what about this for young families uh for women employees I mean there's lots of different ways to to look at this as opposed to a big blanket deal any of anything about this concern you when it comes to uh women particularly and in how this would affect I think this will particularly help women because women are normally the family caregivers whether it be for their parents or for their children and of course they are the ones that need leave when they're pregnant and having have just given birth so it's a it's a it's a it's a bill that will really help women but it will help the whole family and I think that's the point and I think it's also important to mention that this is not for small businesses under five employees so um most New Mexico businesses are under five employees I think they're something like a hundred and sixty thousand of them in New Mexico we're a small business state so this doesn't apply to them um and you know for better or worse I think it was just cost too much for small businesses but it's also I think a way to attract employees too if you have this kind of benefit and that's uh that's important too interesting point there uh Chris the Kaiser Family Foundation says that less than half of employed women across the country say their employer offers uh paid parental leave I got to think it's an opportunity the way what Senators mentioning is so you have to look at it from both sides so yes the employees are going to see that it's going to be more favorable to work for a company that's going to be accommodating to their life values right and their lifestyle including including fathers you have to take into consideration adoptees and parents would actually benefit from paid sick leave however one of the challenges that you run into from the business owner side is the fact that you're at four right you're at four employees or four and it doesn't specify is it ftes or part-timers right so because technically two part-timers equals one full-timer so past that nomenclature you have to think about when we looked at the Obamacare Act there was a lot of companies that don't want to be over 50 because they don't want to pay that Health the health care limitations or that mandate so five employees for paid sick leave will actually be a growth stunter for a lot of companies because they'll have to go and if you could run the numbers again it was for every five dollars five dollars for every five thousand one thousand for one thousand that they own so if you do the math that's like it's I can't do the math very fast but that could actually stunt growth for one employee a new service a new contractor et cetera so there becomes it really screws up with the performance and the projections for down the road and also the growth that they want to have to take into consideration so for us every time we have to add a new benefit mandate at CRZ that actually means that that could cost us between 10 to even thirty thousand dollars per year and that those numbers are not taken into the debate of paid paid like an employer I like that Dan interesting um I'm gonna dovetail buff something uh there's a bigger picture here perhaps uh you're coming to me yes I am yes I am and I'm gonna vote uh Senate Pro Tim Mimi Stewart while I'm asking you uh anyway she's the sponsor and Senate majority what Michael Padilla is in on this as well meaning a reduction in infant mortality and child abuse that's the long long long goal here uh meaning that you know stability you know a bigger picture if the bill is approved would you agree with that if that's impossible I mean you know I I don't know I don't know how that's going to play out I mean I I think that you know listen we have a problem in this in the in the world right now there's a lot of people who aren't fit to be parents who are parents and sometimes putting the kids with them more often for more time is not necessarily the right the right move which which has been the argument in New Mexico right when we've had this argument with CYFD on getting kids back in with their families sometimes kids don't belong back in with their families I I think one of the things that happens is that lots of times there is a motive to pass a piece of legislation and both sides start going to extreme emotional discussions about why we're doing this when the reality is you know I I mean I think the intentions are right behind this but I think you know what worries me is once again we're going to take all this money we're going to give it to the state I haven't read the bill I got to go on record with that but I mean you know so what happens you know I remember not too long ago when I was in the legislature in some cases that's a very long time ago um you know we had the unemployment tax and we had this huge Surplus and the legislature is going to give it back to the employees it's 100 percent paid by the employer and they were going to figure out a way to give it back to the employees now this bill is going to be how do you decide what dollar goes back to who and then as we've seen many times with this type of stuff we've seen it with the height with the gas tax right we have a gas tax in New Mexico gas tax is intended to do what fix the roads and bridges in the town in the state what do we do we take that money it goes to the general fund we find ways to use it for other things so I just I think you know when we start telling businesses hey we got a great idea we're the government we have a a great idea you're going to give us money and we're going to help administer this program for you I don't think we have a great track record let me ask the same question for Senator again that long play about infant mortality 12 weeks of leave it's been proven by study I have to study that a mom that is able to stay home and connect with her child leads to much better outcomes for that child down the road [Laughter] lovely lady I've heard not from you but from others um uh 12 weeks in this bill that's a long time the 11 states that have a similar uh deal that's passed only require eight weeks of paid leave so I'm asking is there a middle ground here you can sense in your gut that possibly could make this more palatable for bipartisan support on this idea that it helps families in the long run to have this well as a mother I don't think that 12 weeks is too long because you know it takes a while to bond with your child and when and the first two weeks I almost don't even count that because you know it's so difficult very difficult for me I know I mean these these creatures do not come with operators manuals you know and so you have to learn and the child really benefits more than you think as when you're when you're doing the mothering and putting in the time so I think it is important in the same way that we now recognize that early childhood education is extremely important in setting the stage for later Life Crystal I want to come back to something you mentioned I'm so fascinated with the idea of a state-funded family leave program could not incentive wise companies that already provide Paid Family Leave like yours to actually opt for the state option is that something you've thought about as well so it's going so of course numbers right right again I almost dropped my budget I almost brought the balance sheet that I have in my company because it actually would become a little bit of an accounting Nightmare and I say that it'll become a little bit of an accounting nightmare because paid leave paid time off and paid sick leave is actually a liability for a company it may possibly alleviate alleviate the liability on the worth of a company down the road but at the same time it also becomes kind of a pain because of the fact that the money has to leave hands the number one challenge that small businesses have is cash flow I gotta wrap you there that I'm hearing you it's a it's a problem to stay or go depending on a state-run program like Dan saying it comes fraught with things thanks again to our line panel as always for this week these guys are terrific be sure to let us know what you think about any of the topics these folks cover on our Facebook Twitter or Instagram pages and catch up on any episode you may have missed on the PBS Video app on your Roku or smart TV