COLUMBUS: Gov. Ted Strickland has asked the Ohio Civil Rights Commission to delay requiring small businesses to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for pregnant women.

But the commission plans to move ahead with the next step, which is going before the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review on Dec. 3.

JCARR is an obscure 10-member legislative panel that reviews rules drafted by state agencies, boards and commissions to ensure they meet four standards of legislative intent.

The board rarely votes against an agency's plan to promulgate rules, but small businesses in Ohio have put a full court lobbying press on lawmakers and Strickland's office to head off the commission.

Strickland's office turned to Barbara Sykes, appointed to head the commission in October, but she turned the governor down after polling fellow members.

Sykes, of Akron, said the commission already delayed going to JCARR by one month so
everyone would have time to examine the issue.

She said the commission worked on the issue for more than a year, held public hearings and scheduled the vote on Oct. 25, before she took her seat as chairwoman.

The current law requiring employers to provide pregnant women with a ''reasonable'' leave of absence has been in effect since 1977.

''In looking at the statute, it gives us the authority to promulgate the rules. This commission has been faced with the question as to what is reasonable,'' Sykes said.

''You had women in limbo not knowing if they were going to keep their jobs. The commission only clarified the term 'reasonable' to ensure employers and employees were not confused over the ambiguous term.''

Sykes said the leave is unpaid and must be ordered by a doctor, and employers can appeal the request by asserting the absence imposes a hardship on their business.

Keith Dailey, a Strickland spokesman, said the governor supports the concept of maternity leave, but he wants time to review the implications of the policy.

Although the governor appoints members to the commission for five-year terms, four of the five members were named by former Gov. Bob Taft.

Strickland does not have the authority to order them to postpone or withdraw the rule from JCARR.

Ty Pine, legislative director for the National Federation of Independent Business-Ohio, said his organization has asked its 25,000 members to send a letter to JCARR expressing concern over the new rule.

''The Civil Rights Commission cannot write law. They don't have the authority,'' Pine said.

He said his organization believes a debate on maternity leave should be held in the appropriate forum by state lawmakers and the governor.

The small businesses he represents also believe the government should not dictate terms of benefits packages, Pine said.

State Rep. William Batchelder, R-Medina, is not only a JCARR member, but he was also one of the sponsors of the law that created the panel in the '70s.

He said JCARR was created to ensure that the legislature did not pass a law only to have the executive branch bureaucracy draft rules that disregarded or contradicted legislative intent.

Batchelder said he has not reviewed all the facts in the matter yet, but he is always concerned about the administrative arm of government going too far in interpreting its statutory authority.

''I don't see this as something that has been expressly relegated to the Civil Rights Commission, but we have to take a pretty close look at this,'' Batchelder said.

Should JCARR vote against the commission, the matter must be introduced as a joint concurrent resolution and pass the Ohio House and Senate.