Published 12 December 2020 Unpaid parental leave is one of the National Employment Standards. While it does not bestow any direct financial entitlement to employees, for eligible employees however, it provides a mechanism under which their employment with an employer is maintained (in spite being on unpaid leave) for up to two years. There are…
Tag: parental leave
2016 in Review
We consider what the major employment law stories for 2016 were and what their impact might be as we head into the new year. Parental leave Leading up to the election, the Coalition scrapped Tony Abbott’s maternity leave scheme which promised that mothers would be paid their full income for 6 months. The policy at…
Another Chapter to the Paid Parental Leave Saga
In another chapter to the saga which is the Coalition’s position on parental leave, yesterday, Social Services Minister Christian Porter announced that he wanted amendments to the Federal Government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme to pass through the Senate and come into effect by 1 January 2017, just ten weeks away. The amendments would see parents…
Flexibility at work. Are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater?
‘Flexibility’ has always been an aspect of workplace law, and a key obligation on employers. It is both essential to anti discrimination law, as well as a key element of ‘a fair go all round’ – a fundamental tenet of Australian workplace law for half a century. The flexibility provisions in the National Employment Standards do little but to…
Work-life balance, the ACTU and a jar full of condoms….
This article late last week, about the ‘work-life’ balance statements of Southern Cross Austereo executive Linda Wayman, was reacted to with immediate controversy. As parental rights at work are currently a hot topic in Industrial Relations and HR circles (our own firm publishing this update just last week), I have to admit being more amused by her comments than…