For many employers, there seems to be quite a lot of uncertainty around their obligations when managing parental leave for their employees.

The Basics

Permanent employees are entitled to unpaid parental leave when a child is born or adopted by the employee, or their spouse, and they have, or will have, the responsibility of being the primary carer of the child, and they have been working for the business for at least 12 months:

  • before the date or expected date of birth if the employee is pregnant,
  • before the date of the adoption, or
  • when the parental leave period starts (if the leave is taken after another person cares for the child or takes parental leave).

Employees meeting this criteria above are entitled to take unpaid parental leave for a period of up to 12 months. Some businesses may also offer their employees a period of paid parental leave as part of their extra employee benefits, but this is not required by law.

Pregnant employees are able to take parental leave starting up to six weeks before the expected due date, and while they are entitled to 12 months of leave from this date, they may choose to return to work sooner. They may also request an additional 12 months of parental leave at the end of this period, and the business can only refuse this request for additional leave after the initial 12 months, if the extended leave will have a significant negative impact on business operations that can not be reasonably overcome.

It’s important to understand that upon their return to work, employees are entitled to the same position as the one they held immediately prior to the commencement of parental leave. If this position is no longer available, then an equivalent position in terms of pay, status and responsibilities will need to be offered.

Paid Parental Leave

The Paid Parental Leave scheme is provided by the Australian government and helps employers by encouraging employees to stay connected to the workplace when they become parents, and also helps employers to have a family friendly workplace without the financial burden of funding parental leave. Payments available to new parents include Parental Leave Pay (for the primary carer) and Dad and Partner Pay.

Employees who are the primary carer can receive Parental Leave Pay for up to 18 weeks, paid directly or via their employer (who is then reimbursed). Partners may also be eligible for Dad and Partner Pay for up to 2 weeks.

Currently to be eligible for Paid Parental Leave, employees must meet the work test which states that the employee must have worked:

  • 10 of the 13 months before the birth or adoption of the child; and
  • at least 330 hours during that period (which equates to around 1 day a week).

Further, there can be no more than an 8 week gap between each work day to meet the current work test criteria.

Upcoming changes to the Paid Parental Leave scheme

The proposed changes to the work test are being made to take into account circumstances affecting pregnant employees who may be unable to continue working because of the hazardous nature of their employment, presenting a risk to their pregnancy, and where there is no safe job alternative available to them.

The proposed changes will:

  • measure the 13-month work requirement, not from the date the child was born, but from the date the pregnant employee ceased work due to the hazards at her workplace posing risk to her pregnancy; and
  • provide for the ‘permissible break’ in the work test to be extended from eight weeks to 12 weeks between two working days.

If passed, these changes will take effect on 1 January 2020.

Have more questions on parental leave? Get in touch with our team today.