By ADAM SICHKO
The Albany Business Review

The state's largest business lobby is taking pre-emptive action against legislation that would mandate that all New York businesses provide employees 12 weeks of paid leave to handle family situations.

The Business Council of New York State Inc. has launched a Web-based advocacy campaign enabling business owners to e-mail state legislators to keep the family-leave measure off of their agendas.

In 2007, the Democratic majority in the state Assembly needed just five days to introduce and pass a paid family-leave mandate, by a 105-21 margin, at the very end of the legislative session. The bill then died in the Republican-led state Senate.

Since January, the proposed mandates have sat in the respective Assembly and Senate labor committees. The current legislative session is coming to a close, with 12 working days remaining.

There has been little movement on the issue this year, but The Business Council's move suggests that the issue could be gaining traction late in the session, thanks to a push by the Working Families Party.

Whether Senate Republicans would back the measure remains to be seen. The Republicans may decide to approve the measure to gain political credit ahead of the November elections, when they could lose their current two-seat edge in the Senate.

Federal law requires employers to provide 12 weeks of unpaid family leave per year for employees to tend to newborns or sick family members. The law applies to companies with more than 50 employees.

A combination of factors - including increasing numbers of working mothers - has made paid family-leave legislation more popular around the country. The proposals mirror the federal law, protecting the jobs of those who opt to take the unpaid leave.

Earlier this month, New Jersey became the third state to enact such a proposal. Starting next year, eligible workers can receive up to six weeks of paid family leave, earning no more than $524 per week during that time.

To date, such a mandate has been enacted in two other states. California was first in 2002, mandating that all employers allot six weeks per year. Washington joined in in May 2007, requiring all employers to offer five weeks of paid leave.

By comparison, leading proposals in New York call for 12 weeks of paid leave, capping family-leave wages at $170 per week. The leading plan, drafted by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, would apply to all businesses in the state.