New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy missed the first two games of the major-league baseball season to witness the birth of his son, Noah, and to spend an extra day with his wife, Tori, and his newborn son. Was he legally entitled to take this paternity leave, particularly at the opening of the 2014 season? Most people would not even be asking this question if Daniel Murphy were not a nationally known and highly popular sports figure or if his participation in the opening games of the MET’s season were not considered by his team members and fans to be so crucial to the season’s success. Far less controversy would also exist if Murphy had taken his paternity leave at a later time, rather than at the precise stage of the season in which he did.

Yet, despite all the criticism leveled at Murphy from fans and commentators, many others feel that Daniel Murphy was well within his legal rights.

Contractual Right to Paternity Leave

An employer is free to offer either paid or unpaid paternity leave to an employee, even if that paternity leave is not required under state or federal law. Murphy’s employer is among the approximately 15% of United States employers that choose to provide this benefit to their employees and can be applauded for that decision. Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between the Major Baseball League [MLB] and the players’ association, Murphy is contractually entitled to take up to three days of paternity leave during the first year of his child’s life. The agreement not only allows Murphy to take this leave, but also grants him the right to designate which three days he will take. Since mothers—particularly those who deliver by Caesarian section, as Murphy’s wife, Tori, did—generally require the most support and assistance in the days immediately following childbirth, Murphy’s choice was a wise family decision as well as a legal one. Were he to have taken his leave at a later time, he would have missed these special and crucial first days of his son’s life as well as the opportunity to provide his wife with the assistance and support she deserved at that time.

Employer Discrimination Regarding Paternal Leave

Employers sometimes offer paid or unpaid leave to mothers of newborns but not to fathers. This may constitute unlawful disparate treatment under federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws. If your employment contract offers maternity leave to mothers but neglects to offer the same benefit to fathers, fathers of newborns may have a legal claim for discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Right to Paternity Leave under Federal Law

Employees are often unaware of their rights to paternity leave. The right to paternity leave may be guaranteed not only under the express terms of your employment contract, but under state or federal law, as well.

Though employers are not generally required to offer paid maternity or paternity leave to their employees, the Family and Medical Leave Act [FMLA] –a federal law governing worker pay and worker hours, found at Title 29, Chapter 28 of the U.S. Code–requires certain employers to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn child. The benefit applies to children borne or adopted by employee-parents as well as to children placed as foster children in an employee’s home. The FMLA requires all employers of 50 or more workers within a 75-mile radius to provide paternity leave to employees who have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least 1250 hours in the previous year. Because the paternity leave granted under the FMLA is unpaid, however, fathers often choose not to take it. The fact that a father’s leave is unpaid while a mother’s maternity leave is often paid contributes to allegations of disparate treatment in some lawsuits filed to enforce a father’s paternity rights.

Right to Paternity Leave under State Law

Certain employees may be entitled to partially paid paternity leave under state law, though very few states provide this leave. California, New Jersey, and Washington, for example, have Paid Family Leave Laws, which provide for paid leave to new fathers as well as mothers. Though employers in these states are required by state law to offer paid paternity leave, the funding for these payments generally comes from state disability insurance programs. In California, for example, employers are required to offer leave to new parents if state disability insurance covers that employee.

Know Your Rights

As stated above, your employer may grant you the right to either paid or unpaid paternity leave, even if not required to do so under the FMLA or state law. Employees who are unsure of their rights should discuss the terms of their employment contracts with their HR departments or an attorney experienced in employment matters.

Obtain Expert Assistance from an Experienced Personal-injury Attorney

Today’s writer, Jeffrey Killino, is the managing partner of The Killino Firm, P.C. and a respected litigation attorney with extensive experience with all types of accident, personal-injury, and child-injury cases. Attorney Killino’s knowledge and expertise have earned him appearances on major television networks, including CNN, ABC FOX, and the Discovery Channel, to discuss nationally-recognized cases, including one against Mattel, Inc., which resulted in an order compelling Mattel to offer free lead-testing to children who may have been exposed to lead-containing toys, and one resulting in the recall of 450,000 tires manufactured in China.

Tata Consultancy Services [TCS] , India’s leading IT services, consulting & business solutions organization, has partnered with Startupbootcamp FinTech, the leading accelerator focused on financial innovation, to host the Pitch Days in India.

The Pitch days will be held in the TCS campuses on February 24 in Mumbai & February 26 in Bangalore.

TCS_Fintech_Collabration

Focused purely on FinTech startups in these regions, the one-day event is open to innovative early stage startups in the financial technology sector to help participants gain exposure and recognition.

Ten startups will be chosen and shortlisted for their cutting-edge and innovative solutions. These firms will be offered an opportunity to participate in the 13-week long Startupbootcamp FinTech accelerator program in London or Singapore.

The event is open for all early stage startups in FinTech. The shortlisted FinTech startups on the Pitch Day will get an opportunity to connect with local mentors, investors and banking professionals in the community. Startups applying for Pitch Days will get access to the Startupbootcamp FinTech global community and be on the accelerator’s radar.

The participants will also be provided with feedback on how to improve their offering, business model and pitching skills.

Speaking at the occasion Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer of TCS said

As part of our Co-Innovation Network [COIN], we have been working with start-ups across the world. It’s great to bring a new initiative to India and host the Startupbootcamp Pitch Days in Mumbai & Bangalore. India has a rich history of promising start-ups and we believe that programs like this will benefit the thriving technology start-up community in India and help to showcase the country’s tremendous enterprise to the global investing community.

Speaking at the occasion Markus Gnirck, Co-founder & Global COO of Startupbootcamp FinTech, said

It is an exciting time for FinTech right now, not only in London and Singapore, but also in India, and we’re delighted to be here for the first time.  Being a part of our Pitch Days means that startups are on the Startupbootcamp FinTech watch-list for life, giving them a greater chance of being selected for one of our global programs.

We encourage startups, at whatever stage in their early development, to apply to join us for the unprecedented opportunity to connect with the Startupbootcamp FinTech global community and have access to worldwide opportunities. The work that we’re doing with partners like Tata Consultancy Services validates the need for accelerator programs to reach countries like India.

The shortlisted startups from the Pitch Day will get to be a part of   Startupbootcamp FinTech accelerator program and have the potential to be selected for the following:

  • Extensive mentorship from 100+ entrepreneurs, investors & partners
  • Access to top markets in London, US & APAC
  • 3+ months free office space
  • € 15K in cash per team
  • €450K+ in partner services
  • Exposure to 200+ Angels & VCs
  • Invitation to SBC global alumni network

For more information on the application process please visit the Fintech-Mumbai & Fintech-Bangalore links

About Startupbootcamp FinTech

Launched in 2014, Startupbootcamp FinTech is the leading FinTech accelerator and the only program of its kind to attract such wide industry support. Based in London and Singapore, its partners include DBS Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, MasterCard, Rabobank, SBT Venture Capital, Arvato Financial Services, Route 66 Ventures, Infocomm Investments & Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as an extensive mentor and alumni network from more than 30 countries across the globe.

The award-winning accelerator offers FinTech startups access to world class industry expertise during an intensive three month program. At the end of the programme, startups pitch at Demo Day to more than 250 investors.

Other Startupbootcamp programs are currently active in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Israel, Istanbul and London with other cities and vertical programs would be announced soon.

For more information on Startupbootcamp, please visit the following links:

Image CreditLink-1 & Link-2

This weekend, I picked up an interesting book titled “The Smart Crow Never Goes Thirsty” by Moid Siddiqui.It is a very short book which stresses on some of the finer points of creativity [starting from the initial period of Childhood , where parents have the maximum chance to unlock their child’s locked potential].

One of the interesting lines in the book is “Ask your child not only to think WISE but also think OTHERWISE biggrin” The book than talks about the corporate culture, the changes that can be made and the effects of those changes…. In few words, it is a book which talks about “INNOVATIVE Culture Building”. One of the interesting topic’s in the book is “The Mental Lock” and for most of us,the reason is closely related to The Aslan Phenomenon.

Below are some of the excerpts from the book :

The Aslan Phenomenon:
If we don’t challenge the existing practice, there is every likelihood of two potential dangers.The first is that you get locked in one approach, method or strategy without noticing the other approaches that might be more appropriate.As a result, you may tailor your problems to the preconceptions you hold and which enable you to solve them in your own way.The fact that rules should be challenged is called the Aslan Phenomenon ,which runs as follows:

  • We make rules based on the reasons that make a lot of sense.
  • We follow the rules religiously.
  • Time passes and times change.
  • The original reasons for the generation of these rules may no longer exist , but because the rules are still in practice, we continue to follow them rolleyes
A person liked to jog every morning.He had many different routes he could take but he invariably took the longest route as his friend used to stay in the neighbourhood where he used to stop and gossip.His name was Aslan.So, stopping at Aslan’s house became a rule for having some fun.One day, Aslan moved out of the neighbourhood but the man continued taking the same long route to stop at the same place even though Aslan no longer lived there.

This is what happens to most of us and since that time, the name Aslan became a phenomenon.

QWERTYUIOP:
As many say : The best ideas strike ,when you think the weirdest kind of things smile

The QWERTYUIOP configuration of the keyboard is just one of the examples that aroused because of the so called Ani-Aslan thinking.In 1870’s , Sholes & Company, a leading manufacturer of typewriters received many complaints from users about typewriter keys sticking together if the operator keyed too fast.The solution was to slow down the typists.

The result was an inefficient keyboard configuration and the most commonly used letters ‘A’, ‘I’ and ‘O’ were positioned in such a way that the relatively weaker fingers were used to depress them.Since then, the QWERTY logic has been used in all the keyboards !!!

The bottom-line is :

Many organizational practices are a result of the Aslan Principle.There are many business practices that are obsolete or dead or being followed for many years.Once a rule is used in practice, it is very difficult to be eliminated even though the original reason for its coming into force has disappeared.Creative thinking involves not only generating new ideas, but escaping from the obsolete ones as well.

My current read “Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble Robert Scoble & Shel Israel” was one of the most awaited books in my library biggrin Scoble, the Channel-9 creator has truly touched on all the aspects of blogging and is must read for any blogger!!!

Chapter#12 (How not to get Dooced) contains “The Corporate weblog Manifesto” , is a must read for corporate bloggers and how they can use blogs to strengthen their relationship with customers.Below is the complete manifesto:

1.
Tell the Truth,whole truth and nothing but the truth.If your competitor has a better product than link to it.They might also do a link exchange.

2.
Post fast on both good as well as bad news.If someone says something bad about the product , link to it before the second of third site does-and answer it’s claims as best as you can.Same , if there is some good news about your product.It’s all about building a long-term trust.

3.
Use a Human Voice.Don’t get corporate lawyers and PR professionals to modify your speech. We can tell,believe me. Plus, you’ll be too slow. If you’re the last one to post, the joke is on you! If we don’t see an occasional typo , we’ll start to wonder if you are really human rolleyes

4.
Make sure that you support the latest software/web/human standards.If you don’t know what they are,find about them.

5.
Have a thick skin.Don’t try to write a corporate blog unless you can’t answer all the questions(good or bad) , professionally and quickly.

6.
Seek out as many grassroots news resources as possible so that you know what is being discussed in the areas of interest to you.

7.
Talk to grassroots first.The reason being , the mainstream press cruises weblogs looking for stories and looking for people to quote.People trust stories that have quotes from multiple stories , they don’t trust press releases.

8.
If you screw up something,acknowledge it fast.Also,give a plan to unscrew it and than deliver.

9.
Under promise and over deliver (Here,lies the key)

10.
Know your influencer’s, salesmen, connectors of your marketplace.If you can’t connect to them during the stage of crisis than you shouldn’t try maintaining a corporate weblog.

11.
Never change your weblog’s URL.If at all this is done,it would take several months to build up the same patterns and trust.

12.
If your life is in turmoil and/or you are unhappy than don’t write.This would affect the writing quality in subtle ways and your readers would notice.

13.
If you don’t have answers , say a no.Not having answers is human but get them and exceed expectations.

14.
Never lie.You’ll get caught and hence,would lose credibility.

15.
Never hide information.Just like space shuttle engineers,your information will get out and would loose credibility.

16.
If you have any information that might get you in a lawsuit,consult a lawyer before posting and make it fast.

17.
Link to your competitors and say nice things about them.Just try to be better than your competitors.

18.
Be nice to everyone.When a big fish comes along,most people do whatever to keep the big fish happy.It is better to be nice to everyone and not just the big fish.

19.
Be the authority of your product/company.You should know more about your product than anyone, if you’re writing a weblog about it.If there are others who know more than you, than better link them !!!

20.
Know who is talking to you.Use services like Technorati, Pubsub….to see who they are?

21.
Be transparent.Show you have nothing to hide.Blogging is a great way to build relationships with the other people, and nothing builds trust and confidence like people who demonstrate they aren’t hiding anything.

22.
Build relationships offline too.If people get to know you face to face , they’ll stick by your side more often than not.Spend time in blogger meetups and conferences.

23.
Disclose all conflicts and biases.Being transparent with your readers about your conflicts and/or biases will help you remain credible.Own a stock in your company,write about it.Get taken to dinner by a company or a person because your blog? Write about it….

24.
Don’t blog on demand.Your blog is your own hence , always make sure that it is you who is writing somethings and not someone else.You are responsible for the content that goes on your blog.

25.
Keep confidences.If someone says “This is not for your blog”, than don’t write about it.Set ground rules upfront for any conversation.It’s not fair for people to give you a demo and afterward say “You’re not going to put this on your blog, are you?”

26.
Be clear when you are speaking for your company.If you’re writing a personal blog,sometimes the company might want you to write something on it.If this happens than be very clear about the role change.Also,when you’re writing your own opinion of it, it is better to say “This is my own opinion” or some other qualifier to make sure your readers understand that the information is not vetted or approved.

27.
Demonstrate passion.Post frequently.

28.
Respond to your readers.Read your comments,check for your referer log frequently and link back to those who are talking to you.Link to others and they would return the gesture.

29.
Be ethical.Read and follow Charlene Lis and Allan Jenkins ethics policies.They would help you avoid ethical dilemmas.

30.
Realize that you don’t have free speech.Your writing will be judged under the legal standards for corporate speech,especially if you are an executive of the company, so you must take care to be acccurate in terms of Product claims.

31.
Have a conversation to your manager about blogging before you start and find out what kinds of blogging, he or she will defend.

32.
It is always risky to attack the boss.Do it sparingly.Do with your eyes open and expect backlash.

33.
Be careful with the legal issues.Commenting on legal issues is very risky.Be very careful when you comment in such blogs.Remember that blogs are read worldwide by people who might not see things the way they see them.

34.
If you want to change something about the world, than ask yourself “How will I best get the change I want?”.Realize it’s easier to change your company from inside than outside.