So I'm a full-time common law employee and I've never actually thought to look at my parental leave entitlement until I started thinking about having kids. I get 52 weeks unpaid which I believe is the Australian standard.
To all the ozbargainers out there, what is your parental leave entitlement? Paid/unpaid? How many weeks?
Is this something you can approach your company about and get the clause in your contract changed?
How Much Paid Parental Leave Is Normal?
LSweetChilliPhilli on 10/03/2022 - 07:29
Comments
Thanks for the reply! I guess I want to get an understanding of what's "normal" as opposed to what we are entitled to. What do people normally settle for? I always assumed we were all entitled to some paid parental leave, so this came as a bit of a shock.
How do couples survive if both take parental leave? Do they just chew through savings?
law employee asking for contract advice?
.No the common law is my employment agreement(i.e not on an EBA). I'm an Engineer.
You've given 2 different answers.
Are you on a fixed term contract?
If no, are you covered under an award?
If no, are you a contractor under a contract agreement?Whichever of those 3 you are, that will clue you to where you find your answer, along with NES requirements if you are an employee.
Actually seems pretty clear to me, they are just a regular employee with a run of the mill employment contract and no EBA.
An award won't matter, parental leave is the same regardless.
@Hardlyworkin: Sorry for the confusion, yes I'm a regular employee with a regular employment contract and not on and EBA and not a contractor.
@SweetChilliPhilli: Easy, review the award (won't be there), your employment contract (won't be anything there, unless you have a generous employer) and review the NES entitlements online.
Hi
I work in tech, and I understand most big banks have similarly generous policies:Primary carers - 6 months full pay, to be taken within 12 months of birth. Many
dadsnon-birthing partners are taking this now, with the caveat their partner is returning to work at 0.8 or aboveSecondary carers - we have 6 weeks full pay, to be taken within 12 months.
Lots of larger companies are becoming more progressive, for the better.
Recently changed roles so can provide insight from one end of spectrum to the other.
Company A: offered 2 weeks paid leave for secondary carer (provided you were with the organisation for 12 months) within the first 12 months of child being born.
Company B: offers paid 26 weeks regardless of who the primary carer is and its available for use within the first 24 months of child being born.
Work in IT consulting.
Wow company B!
Yeah a massive but very welcome shock. I was just reading the policy yesterday as we start to map out number 2 for our family.
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/…
Im also an engineer, and got our companies default leave when I had kids - 6 weeks for the primary and 1 week for the secondary. Going back a few years this was generally the "normal" in the industry. This has changed in the last couple of years, I think we are up to 16 weeks for the primary and two weeks for the secondary? This seems to be closer to the new normal.
Note that on top of this, you can take unpaid leave as per the NES guidelines above. You can also claim the Government's Parental Leave Pay which is 18 weeks at min wage for the primary carer.
My partner just went back to work and I am using the remainder of the 14 weeks that I'm entitled to! I took 14 days when bub was born and the rest now :)
Is this paid or unpaid?
So you and your partner are staggering your respective parental leaves. That's smart. Will be tough, but smart.At full pay :)
Yes we staggered it as my partner returned to work after 8 months off.
Y'alls getting leave?
Haha my thoughts exactly.
I work two jobs, one is just unpaid leave 12months, the other 20 weeks paid leave pro rata (university, one day a week for me).
There is also a max of 18 weeks leave at minimum wage from centreline.
Yeah people just either chew through their savings or go back to work early.
Guess their stance on employees having babies and not working is pretty clear.
Wowza, what industry and role do you work in? Big company/small company?
Most paid parental leave (other than the Centrelink payment) is legislated in an EBA. No harm in asking for some paid leave from your employer, especially if they are a larger company with a social conscience. Just think who you want to angle the conversation.
Everyone gets 12 months unpaid and everyone can ask for another 12 months though an employer can reasonably refuse.