But it only covers parents of babies, it won\'t take effect until 2009 and the source of the money to pay for the leave has yet to be determined.

Nevertheless, unions and womens\' groups hailed the achievement, which is not duplicated nationally. Federal law, which the Bush administration is trying to undercut, lets workers of both sexes in firms of 50 or more take 12 weeks of unpaid family leave to care for newborns, ill family members or workers themselves. The only other state with paid family leave is California.

Washington\'s plan starts Oct. 1, 2009, and covers workers in all firms with at least 25 employees. It would pay parents of newborn or newly adopted children $250 a week for five weeks, after a 1-week waiting period. Unlike the federal law, that\'s the only situation for family leave. And Washington workers would have to take their state-paid family leave concurrently with the unpaid federal leave.

A 13-member panel will be named by Gov. Christine Gregoire (D), who signed the law May 8, to work out how to finance the state\'s family leave law, with a Jan. 1, 2008 reporting deadline to the legislature.

In a fact sheet posted on its web site, the state Labor Council backed paid family leave, and noted it would be in addition to a state Family Care Law. That measure, "sometimes called \'The Chicken Pox Law,\' lets parents use their own accrued sick leave to care for a sick child," the council added.

"The important part of Family Care Law is that it provides limited paid leave. The problem with most family leave is that most workers cannot afford to take unpaid leave. The council supports creating a new insurance plan for family leave.

"When workers must take care of serious health conditions in their families, they should be assured both job security and economic security...Nearly half of workers in our state have no paid sick leave, so they cannot use our state\'s family care law either."

The council calculated the new family leave law "would help 40,000 new parents caring for a baby." It said similar numbers of people who care for a sick relative would have been helped in the original version of the bill. But business lobbying forced state lawmakers to drop that coverage of other family leave situations.

This article was written by Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.