Los Angeles County recently took a positive step toward supporting working families by launching a Paid Family Leave (PFL) Pilot Program. The program reflects values County leaders have long said they champion: family stability, workplace fairness, and the recognition that public servants perform their best work when they are supported during critical moments in their lives.
As currently structured, however, the pilot program excludes many frontline County employees for a single reason: they are represented by a union. That exclusion raises important questions about fairness, workforce stability, and the long-term impact on the public services County residents rely on every day.
The Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) has engaged County leadership on this issue. We recently met with Supervisor Kathryn Barger and have an upcoming meeting scheduled with Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s team to discuss how the program can better align with its stated goals. These conversations reflect a shared interest in strengthening County policies in a thoughtful, responsible way.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman has also raised this issue directly with the Board of Supervisors. In a letter sent on behalf of his office, he urged the County to consider allowing Deputy District Attorneys access to the PFL pilot program, emphasizing that recruitment, retention, and employee well-being are operational concerns that directly affect public safety and the administration of justice.
A Program Funded Largely by the Employees Who Use It
The PFL pilot program allows participating employees to use their own after-tax earnings to replace income during significant life events, such as welcoming a new child, recovering from childbirth, caring for a seriously ill family member, or managing added parenting responsibilities during a spouse’s or partner’s military deployment. The County’s own Chief Executive Office has described the program’s costs to date as “negligible,” with employees covering a substantial portion of the benefit themselves and administrative systems already in place.
Therefore, the decision to exclude union-represented employees was not driven by fiscal necessity. It is a policy choice within a program that was designed to support working families and strengthen the County workforce.
The Impact on Families and Public Service
Paid family leave is not a luxury benefit. It allows employees to recover from medical events, care for loved ones, and maintain family stability without facing severe financial hardship. When employees lack access to income replacement during these periods, they often face an unfair and unhealthy choice: return to work earlier than medically or emotionally appropriate or take unpaid leave that places their families under additional financial strain.
Those pressures do not stay confined to individual households. In the District Attorney’s Office, they affect morale, retention, and, most importantly for our community, continuity in the justice system. Like many public-sector offices across California and the nation, the DA’s Office faces recruitment and staffing challenges in an increasingly competitive legal labor market. Federal agencies and private employers routinely offer more robust family-supportive benefits, and Los Angeles County is already operating well below staff capacity. When experienced attorneys leave public service, the impact is felt in courtrooms and communities across the County.
The PFL pilot program was intended to address precisely these kinds of challenges. Extending access to union-represented employees would further the program’s purpose, not undermine it.
The Path Forward
The Board of Supervisors has clear options available. It can amend the pilot program to let in union-represented employees, or it can direct that paid family leave access be resolved through open bargaining with affected unions. Either approach would preserve the integrity of the pilot program while ensuring that access to family-supportive benefits does not depend solely on whether one is or is not represented by a union.
ADDA remains committed to finding a fair, fiscally responsible solution. Paid family leave is not about special treatment. It is about maintaining a stable, experienced workforce capable of delivering consistent public service.
Los Angeles County has an opportunity to complete the work it began by ensuring that all employees who serve the public have access to support during life’s most critical moments. Doing so would strengthen families, improve retention, and ultimately benefit the communities we all serve.
Ryan Erlich is President of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys. The Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) serves as the collective bargaining agent for more than 700 Deputy District Attorneys employed by the County of Los Angeles.
