Family Leave

WASHINGTON -- The Senate, taking a political swipe atPresident Bush, voted 68-31 yesterday to override his veto of the family leave bill -- the first time in Mr. Bush's 3 1/2 -year term that Democrats in the chamber have been able to muster the necessary two-thirds majority.Democrats immediately boasted that the bipartisan action -- in which 14 Republicans voted in favor of the override -- showed that Mr. Bush was "isolated" on the question and had lost his credibility for using family values as an issue in the presidential campaign.

IN considering their vote on an override of President Bush's veto of the family-leave bill, members of Congress should consider the results of the first large-scale national study of the effects of day care -- evidence that full-time day care, as against having a parent home, may harm children under the age of 1.The study, supported by the Labor Department and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, began in 1979 with a nationwide sample...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, whose re-election campaign is apparently losing ground with moderates, signaled his distress yesterday by offering for the first time to compromise on legislation that would mandate family leave benefits.In an apparent bid to control political damage from his promised veto of a congressional family leave bill, Mr. Bush offered $500 million in tax incentives to encourage small businesses to voluntarily grant their workers unpaid time off for family emergencies.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats, seeking to embarrass President Bush on the GOP's own "family values" issue, approved and sent to the White House yesterday a family leave bill that the president has threatened to veto despite widespread support.The legislation would require larger employers to grant workers up to 12 weeks a year of unpaid leave, either to obtain medical treatment for themselves or to care for a newborn baby, sick children, ill spouses or elderly parents.Although companies would not be forced to pay workers for the time off, they would be required to continue they employees' medical insurance and to guarantee that their jobs would be available when they return.

WASHINGTON -- Challenging President Bush to support family values on the eve of the Republican convention, the Senate yesterday approved a bill that would require employers to grant unpaid leave for childbirth and family emergencies.Mr. Bush vetoed an earlier version of the bill, insisting that government should not dictate to employers. But family-leave backers hope election-year pressures will force him to change his mind on a popular issue.Mr. Bush's "failure to support this is failure to reinforce what is a very important part of his platform," said Sen. Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo.

Dorothy Adams cares for her husband.She cares for him nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, holidays included.That does not leave Mrs. Adams, 69, much time to care for herself. But she doesn't complain -- she is helping the man she promised to love and cherish when they married more than 53 years ago.Arthur Adams, 74, had an operation five years ago that left him unable to walk and dependant on his wife for almost every need. The former mechanic also lost his sight to glaucoma."He was a very active man before the operation," Mrs. Adams said.

The first union to settle with the Board of Education agreed yesterday to accept only step and longevity increases, with no cost-of-living raise.However, leaders for the Carroll Association School Employees said they had expected to sacrifice cost-of-living raises for other issues they won, such as family leave and lower health insurance payments for most members.William Hyde, assistant superintendent of administration, would not speculate whether the other four unions would be offered the same type of package.

Aetna maternity leaveAetna Life & Casualty Co., which implemented a family-leave program for employees in 1988, estimates its leave policy saved the company $2 million in the 12 months ending June 30 of this year.In a "first-ever" corporate analysis of how much money it saved, the Hartford, Conn.-based insurance and financial-services company attributes the savings to the high retention rate of its new mothers returning to work."The year before we implemented the policy, only 77 percent of the women who went on maternity disability returned to work," said Sherry Herchenroether, manager of Aetna's family-services department.