Among the many benefits offered to Berkeley Lab employees is paid parental leave. The University of California’s Pay for Family Care and Bonding (PCFB) program allows eligible employees up to eight weeks of leave at full pay. Employees covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) —those who have worked for the Lab for at least 12 months and had at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12 months before their FMLA leave starts—are eligible for PCFB.

If you do not qualify for FMLA and thus PCFB, you might still be eligible for four weeks of parental leave at 100% pay. (The Lab agreed to offer this after the Women’s Support and Empowerment Council (WSEC)—currently chaired by ATAP Education and Outreach Coordinator Ina Reichel—brought the issue to the attention of WSEC co-executive sponsors Deputy Director for Research Carol Burns and Chief Engineering Officer Henrik von der Lippe.  This initiative came from the Policy Subcommittee of WSEC, co-chaired by ATAP Research Scientist Tianhuan Luo.)

These are just two of the paid and unpaid leave scenarios available to new biological and adoptive parents. For more information on the various parental leave options available to employees, go to the Family & Medical Leave page under “Arrival of a New Child.” The formal statements from the Requirements and Policies Manual on paid parental leave can be found here.

You’re not in this alone!  

For individual consultations and questions related to family and parental leave—or other services that the Lab offers its people in their time of need—please contact the Integrated Disability & Absence Management Services team at IDAM@lbl.gov.