‘I Am Starting To Panic’: Family And Medical Leave Recipients In Mass. Face Delayed Payments, Uncertainty
Felipe Zamborlini, his wife Ann and their daughter Clara. (Courtesy, Felipe Zamborlini)
Filipe Zamborlini and his wife were thrilled about becoming parents, but they weren’t sure exactly how they’d manage child care for their soon-to-arrive daughter.
“My wife and I had some really hard conversations, talking about who would quit their jobs to be able to take care of her,” Zamborlini said.
Both of them work for homeless shelters in the Boston area and have college debt. So, Zamborlini knew quitting his job to be a stay-at-home dad might mean selling the house they’d bought in Salem just three years ago.
But, he said, it turned out that their daughter Clara was born at the perfect time.
Starting on Jan. 1, 2021, most workers in Massachusetts have been able to access paid family and medical leave. This means that Zamborlini was able to avoid leaving his job and continue getting paid as he took care of his newborn. By passing the law, Massachusetts joined a small number of states — and a large number of countries — that offer people time to care for a loved one or deal with their own medical situation while paying a portion of their income.
However, the law’s rollout has had ups and downs. One major challenge, GBH News has learned, is that some people have not been receiving their payments from the state, or their checks have arrived many weeks late.
The Department of Family and Medical Leave’s Facebook page is littered with unhappy Massachusetts residents fretting about overdue bills and fearing losing their homes as they wait for payments from the state.
“Praying this week I receive payment,” wrote Kristin Cameron on the Facebook page, including that she had been waiting several weeks already. “I have 3 kiddos and our mortgage as well as other bills are going to be past due and we need groceries. I am starting to panic. I can’t believe this.”
Massachusetts’ Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rosalin Acosta acknowledged the delay in payments in a virtual town hall on Feb. 18.
Read the rest of the story at GBH’s website.