Oceanside Mulls Child at Work Policy

The City Council on Wednesday danced around the controversial issue of children in the workplace, sending a proposed policy regarding city employees’ rights to bring their children to work back to a committee for some “rewording.”

The policy, drafted by an employees’ committee over the past five months, would establish guidelines for permitting children to accompany their parents on the job on a temporary basis when it is deemed “mutually beneficial for the city and the employee.”

Under the policy, supervisors of Oceanside’s individual departments would use their own discretion in evaluating “emergency situations” facing an employee--such as illness, sudden adoptions, or a sick baby sitter--and in determining whether that employee should be permitted to bring a child to work.

In making such a decision, the policy recommends that supervisors consider numerous factors, among them:

- Has the employee made an effort to find alternative child care?

- Can the employee use sick leave or vacation time to stay home with the child?

- Is the nature of the employee’s work vital enough to warrant his or her attendance at work with the child?

- Is the child healthy and unlikely to affect the health of other employees?

- Would the presence of the employee’s child in the workplace be disruptive to other workers?

While most of the council members appeared amenable to the recommended guidelines, they protested that the policy failed to state clearly that, in general, Oceanside discourages the presence of children on the job.

“I feel we need something here that says, as a principle, ‘It is the policy of the City of Oceanside that children should not be brought to the workplace except in very extreme emergencies,’ ” Councilman John MacDonald said.

MacDonald also recommended that several examples of “those short-term emergencies where we will make exceptions” be listed under the policy.

Most of his colleagues on the council agreed. Except Sam Williamson, who said he continues to oppose children at City Hall at any time, period.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: A child’s place is in the home,” Williamson said. “I think our policy should just flatly say that children will not be allowed in the workplace.”

Williamson said he is particularly leery of giving department supervisors the discretion to determine when an emergency merits allowing employees to bring their child to work.

“You’re going to have different standards with different supervisors, and while a secretary who works at a desk may have no trouble bringing a baby, what’s a guy at the sewer plant or on street maintenance supposed to do? The kid can’t exactly ride along on a backhoe.”

The child care issue surfaced in January when Williamson and several Oceanside residents criticized City Manager Suzanne Foucault for bringing her newly adopted daughter to work several days a week. Foucault received 10 days’ notice before her daughter arrived and had trouble finding a baby sitter.

After an emotional public hearing, in which some residents accused the city manager of being an unfit mother, council members gave Foucault a month to line up child care for the baby. They also directed city staff members to come up with a policy on employees’ rights regarding children in the workplace.

After it has been “reworded” by the council’s legislative committee, the proposed policy will return to the full council for action, probably sometime next month.