VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -Right now, employees of the Resort City do not get paid maternity/paternity leave when the baby arrives but that could soon change.
Regina Hilliard with the Dept. of Human Resources said a proposal is in the works after City Council announced their support for the change to the administrative policy. Implementing maternity and paternity leave will be drafted for the City Manager to sign into approval.
The change will come as early as the start of the new year.
If a Virginia Beach city employee has a baby right now they can use their vacation, sick, disability, accumulated leave time as their 'maternity' leave but the new policy would give them that paid time off without cutting into their other leave for the year.
The city hopes to allow three weeks paid leave for new moms and two weeks paid leave for new dads/the bonding parent.
Up until now there was no such policy in place and some moms and dads had to take time off without getting a paycheck.
Employees told News 3 this will allow them more time home with their new babies and will alleviate the stresses of coming back to work if the mother still needs time to heal or recuperate after the pregnancy and birth.
