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Elaine Li
27-04-2012, 05:20 PM
Hi want to hear your professional idea.

My collegue Sydney asked company to consider to offer :

1. 8 - 10 weeks of full pay maternity leave to female employee and the rest of the patental leave will on UN-paid.

2. To attact the Staff return from the paternity leave, she suggested we set up a "return to work" bonus, to pay to those who willing to come back the work earlier, so that we don't need to hold their job for 12 months, and we also no need to hire a Temp staff during the 12 parental leave, is this common in Sydney ?

3. Should this return to work bonus also eligible for the Male staff if he shorter the parental leave ?

My collegue in Sydney sent me some link that a lot of company doing the above , can you share with me some of you ideas, thanks

Tiger
30-04-2012, 02:12 PM
Maternity Leave or Parental Leave (which is the official term in Australia encompassing maternity, paternity and adoption leave) legislation is quite comprehensive. Paid M/L has been on offer by some large Australian companies for the past decade although I'm not sure what the percentage is today who offer mothers paid leave.
Whilst there is a push by the current labor government for more companies to offer this, since 2010, Australia has had a Paid Parental Scheme {PPL} in place where women who pass the financial assessment (by the government agency, Centrelink) may be entitled to 18 weeks' pay at the, current, rate of $589.40/week. This might be seen as a bit of disincetive for companies to also offer paid M/L.
The few companies I am aware of who offer paid leave over and above the government's 18 weeks, can vary - some more generous than others and some do in fact offer the carrot of part of the payment being held over until the woman has returned to work which might have a time on it eg it would be paid so many weeks following their return to work. So you could have a dollar amount in your policy half of which is paid when the woman goes on M/L and the other half paid after she is back in her job. Remember however that effective with the Fair Work Act, women can now apply for a second year of M/L. The company must reply to that request within a month and must give valid business reasons if rejecting the request.
Whether you consider providing paid M/L as a benefit to your pregnant staff is something to consider as a business, review the costs to business etc, and propose as part of your next budget. But, at the risk of falling foul to my female colleagues, I do suggest that a look at your business, the number of females of child bearing age, the time and cost of re-training replacements etc must all be considered - it could be that is not something you want to take on at this time.
As to option of considering this (similar paid P/L) for male staff, I have to admit to not being aware of any organization who does that. Fathers may take Parental Leave but not at the same time (except at the birth) as the mother so a set of parents could split the time allowale. Whilst there are many men who've become stay at home dads, I think they may still be in a minority.
If thinking about your Policy (assume you don't have one yet), you also need to consider the right of the female to request flexible work arrangements when returning to work - this may take the form of working part time or working full time but with 1 or 2 days worked from home. If considering the latter, you'd have to do a workplace assessment - to ensure the area of the home where the work will take place adheres to safety regulations.

Neb-Maat-Re
01-05-2012, 10:17 AM
Just to clarify for Elaine, despite it's name, the Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave scheme isn't actually a form of leave - it's a "social security" type benefit paid by the Government.

Although the PPL is intended to compensate employees who do not have access to paid maternity leave, it's actually possible to receive paid maternity leave from your employer if they offer it and receive the PPL payments.