After rejecting a number of bills aimed at repealing or amending Maine’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) Program earlier this week, the state Senate now has advanced a measure that would add new penalties and enforcement measures to the program.
The bill, introduced by President of the Senate Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland) — who sponsored the original PFML program — and cosponsored by Rep. Kristen Cloutier (D-Lewiston), would also establish a Bureau of Paid Family and Medical Leave within the Maine Department of Labor (MDOL) to administer the program.
This program, enacted last year as part of a spending bill, has imposed a one percent payroll tax on most working Mainers and their employers to fund paid leave for all employees statewide, with benefits not scheduled to begin until May of 2026.
Mainers began contributing to the program on January 1 of this year, sixteen months ahead of when benefits are first scheduled to become available.
Under LD 894, civil action may be taken against an employer to collect unpaid premium contributions and penalties.
The state would also be authorized to collect a levy against a third party that has “possession or control” of property in which the employer “may have an interest.”
This bill would further establish penalties for employers who have been approved for a private plan substitution but allow their policies to lapse.
Should this legislation be approved, employers who are out of compliance with a substitution agreement would be required to pay a fine equal to the amount of premiums that would have otherwise contributed, as well as a penalty worth one percent of the employers total payroll for the period in which their policy had lapsed.
The Commissioner of Labor would also be tasked with administering the program through a newly created Bureau of Paid Family and Medical Leave, for which a list of enumerated fines, penalties and “other actions” could be taken if they are deemed “necessary or suitable.”
This legislation also seeks to establish liability for premium contributions and penalties owed by employers that are acquired by other individuals or organizations.
Finally, the bill would clarify that “intermittent leave” of less than one work day may not be taken unless both the employee and employer agree to it.
It is this version of the bill, supported by the Democratic majority of the Labor Committee, that has since been advanced along partisan lines in the Senate.
[RELATED: Maine Employers May Soon Be Subject to New Penalties for Noncompliance with Paid Leave Program]
Several Republican Committee members, however, introduced an amended version of the bill that included many of the changes that had earlier been raised in some of the now-rejected proposals.
For example, individuals would have been required to have worked for their current employer for at least 120 days before becoming eligible to take leave under the program.
Leave would have also needed to be taken concurrently with the leave available under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
In addition to this, it would have provided some clearer guidelines for the law’s undue hardship provision, outlining a handful of circumstances in which employers could deny a request for leave without being subject to appeal, except in the case of an emergency, illness, or other sudden necessity.
Other amendments included refunding contributions made by those requesting a private plan substitution during the period before their application was approved and specifying that benefits received under the PFML program are subject to state income tax.
At the same time, the Committee amendment from the minority also incorporated some of the new penalties and enforcement mechanisms central to the original version of the bill.
[RELATED: House Rejects Even More Amendments to Maine’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Program]
The only Committee member to oppose both the original and amended versions of LD 894 was Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn).
During Tuesday’s Senate session, lawmakers voted along strict partisan lines in support of adopting Senate President Daughtry’s version of the bill.
Should legislators in the House eventually follow suit and adopt the Committee’s majority Ought to Pass report, LD 894 will be sent to Gov. Janet Mills (D) for a signature.
