The number of states looking at legislation aimed at helping employees weather the effects of the recession is exploding, and HR leaders need to stay abreast of the proposed legislative efforts, experts say.

. . . In October, the Sloan Work and Family Research Network at Boston College issued a report detailing the flood of proposed and enacted workplace-specific legislation that has emerged from the recession, including provisions affecting paid leave, paid time-off, pay parity and unemployment benefits for part-time workers.

"Where the economy is a recession, unemployment is growing and a future time of recovery is uncertain, state legislators and advocates around the country are addressing the need for policies that make it possible for people to be productive workers and care for themselves or their family members in time of need," said Julie Weber, a policy specialist with the Boston-based provider online work and family information.

[The report] cites recently proposed family-leave legislation in Arizona, Massachusetts, Montana and New York; paid-sick-leave legislation in California, Illinois, Maine, North Carolina and Pennsylvania; and pay-parity legislation in Alabama, Colorado, Florida and Iowa.

A number of states -- Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan and Maryland, to name a few -- are also considering bills for extending unemployment benefits to part-time workers, the group reports.

HR leaders, need to prepare for these changes and successfully manage them, according to Reid Bowman, general counsel of San Francisco-based ELT, a provider of compliance training. It's especially important that they take care of the "forgotten players, those front-line supervisors and managers who need to be equipped ... to manage these laws," he said.

. . . Bowman and others don't expect to see states let up on workplace-related legislation anytime soon, especially with a national unemployment rate at 9.8 percent. "While these issues are getting attention now, I think they're important to workers whether the times are good or bad," Bowman said.

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