San Diego Councilman Raul Campillo is expected to lay out a proposal that aims at expanding the city's existing policies involving parental leave.
The Councilman confirmed the upcoming move on Wednesday, saying that the current policies that provide just four weeks of parental leave is an issue he wants to address for workers in San Diego.
"The disparity between the amount of parental leave we offer our city employees and what other employers provide is a stark problem," he said Wednesday at a meeting of the city council's Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, as their chairman. "I've recently analyzed the city's current recruitment and retention strategies, exploring how the city can better grow and support our own workforce as one of the largest employers in the region."
Campillo says that the existing parental leave offers an unfair deal for people in the workplace, which is why he says he's taking a stand now for employees.
The Councilman says that this issue is one of the many reasons why there's an existing struggle that companies go through, that involves retaining city workers and increasing recruitment in the workplace.
As of December of 2021, the unemployment rate in San Diego County stood at 4.30%, a percentage Councilman Campillo is planning to decrease with this new proposal involving parental leave.
"Four weeks of parental leave is not competitive as an employer and not supportive of our workers — it is simply not enough," Campillo said. "The issue is clear, and we need to act."
There is not a set date for when any new law on the matter goes into effect, but Councilman Campillo has previously stated that 2022 will be a year in which he focuses on making new changes for workers requesting competitive parental leave in the city of San Diego.
