WITH MUCH FANFARE, LEAVE BILL IS SIGNED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993                   TAG: 9302080245
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
WITH MUCH FANFARE, LEAVE BILL IS SIGNED
President Clinton signed the first major legislation of his presidency Friday, hailing approval of the family leave bill as an end to 12 years of gridlock in Washington.
More action is on the way, he said, but Republicans said future battles won't be so easy.
Clinton, signing a law that grants workers up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for family emergencies, took pains in an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony to single out helpful GOP lawmakers for praise.
Yet he and congressional Democrats also boasted that the bill's quick enactment was a signal that a decade of stalemate was over now that Republicans no longer control the White House. Former President Bush had twice vetoed family leave measures passed by the Democratic Congress.
"It was America's families who have beaten the gridlock in Washington to pass family leave," Clinton said.
"The decade of deadlock has ended - the decade of progress now opens," said Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.
But Republicans were quick to try and rain on the Democrats' sunlit celebration, saying the bill - which first passed Congress a year before Clinton even declared for the presidency - wasn't much of a trial.
"Obviously, they control the Congress. It wasn't very difficult" to hurry the bill through, said Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole.
Dole said Clinton would have a brutal time breaking gridlock within his own party on the really tough issues, noting that some congressional Democrats are already reportedly balking at Clinton's plans for campaign finance reform.
\ FAMILY LEAVE LAW\ WHAT IT PROVIDES\ \ Workers could take up to a total of 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for: birth of a child or an adoption; need to care for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition; their own serious health condition which makes them unable to perform their job.\ \ Employees must be returned to their old job or an equivalent position when they come back.\ \ Employers don't have to keep paying their workers, but do have to keep providing health care benefits, just as though the worker were still employed.\ \ No cost to taxpayers; workers aren't eligible for unemployment or other government compensation when they take the leave.\ \ Only workers who've been employed for at least one year and for at least 1,250 hours (25 hours a week) would be covered.\ \ Exempts companies with less than 50 workers.\ \ Lets companies deny the benefit to salaried employees within the highest-paid 10 percent of their work force, if letting the workers take the leave would create "substantial and grievous injury" to the business operations.\ \ Permits employers to obtain up to three medical opinions and certifications on the need for the leave.\ \ If workers don't come back, employers can recapture the health care premiums they paid during the leave.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB