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The fundamental need for thorough review of Maternity Leave provisions in Australian Workplaces
Paid Maternity Leave in Australian workplaces is fundamental to equality for women.
Whilst women must take a compulsory (medical) leave of absence of a minimum of six weeks to have a child, this leave should be paid. However, is six weeks really a long enough time frame for recovery for all women? And if not, then should this minimum period be extended and covered by employers?
Perhaps the models of countries such as the UK should be explored where the Maternity Leave is much more generous and enables women to recover more thoroughly from the birthing process rather than having financial constraints determine their recovery period, not to mention the time to bond with the new born.
Then there are also scenarios to consider such as the Mother being the primary bread-winner. This does happen! What options do workplaces instigate to enable flexibility in the workplace to enable Mothers to return to work, and Fathers to be the at-home parent and bring the baby in for the likes of feeding? Other options to consider are such as working-from-home flexibility.
Some Australian public companies already go above and beyond the minimum requirements set out by legislation and pay three months off for employees... take IBM for example.
However, one must also consider the financial burden placed upon smaller Private Companies that aren't profitable enough to sustain three months paid leave to an employee just because they've worked there for 12 months. An extra employee on the payroll is a significant cost in terms of overheads for some small businesses. How would this be determined by Legislation?
Just food for thought... all of the above is open and welcome for debate and constructive criticism...
Whilst women must take a compulsory (medical) leave of absence of a minimum of six weeks to have a child, this leave should be paid. However, is six weeks really a long enough time frame for recovery for all women? And if not, then should this minimum period be extended and covered by employers?
Perhaps the models of countries such as the UK should be explored where the Maternity Leave is much more generous and enables women to recover more thoroughly from the birthing process rather than having financial constraints determine their recovery period, not to mention the time to bond with the new born.
Then there are also scenarios to consider such as the Mother being the primary bread-winner. This does happen! What options do workplaces instigate to enable flexibility in the workplace to enable Mothers to return to work, and Fathers to be the at-home parent and bring the baby in for the likes of feeding? Other options to consider are such as working-from-home flexibility.
Some Australian public companies already go above and beyond the minimum requirements set out by legislation and pay three months off for employees... take IBM for example.
However, one must also consider the financial burden placed upon smaller Private Companies that aren't profitable enough to sustain three months paid leave to an employee just because they've worked there for 12 months. An extra employee on the payroll is a significant cost in terms of overheads for some small businesses. How would this be determined by Legislation?
Just food for thought... all of the above is open and welcome for debate and constructive criticism...
Views: 2
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Melanie on
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I think that big business that can afford it generally does afford it as part of their general culture of staff care and development. Which is great.
You are right though, it would be an unfair burden to place on small employers but I don’t see why the tax system can’t cover the costs of maternity leave (especially for small business – maybe there should be a profits test?!) and that there can’t be a section of the tax or centrelink agencies that deal directly with helping small business recoup their costs associated with providing paid maternity leave to their workers. -
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Permalink Reply by Danielle on
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This is a really tricky area. Until I was pregnant myself I had no idea that there was no paid maternity leave in Australia and was pretty disappointed our "advanced" country didn't legislate for it. Certainly I think 3 months paid leave is the absolute minimum and it should be government funded. However, as we watch the US and Australian share markets crumble and talk of recession looming it's hard to believe our government is going to sign up for more spending. Perhaps if we have less bureaucrats the government would be able to afford it.
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