Parental Leave

Changes to the National Employment Standard last year now provide additional leave entitlements to new parents.

An employee is entitled to unpaid parental leave associated with the birth of a child if:

• The child is a child of the employee, or of the employee’s spouse or de facto partner;

• The employee has or will have the responsibility for the care of a child;

• The employee provides the relevant notice and documentation; and

• The employee has (or will have) completed at least 12 months’ continuous service.

The employee can have 12 months unpaid leave plus a further period of up to 12 months if employer agrees.

This leave can be taken any time during the 24-month period following the birth of the child or the placement of an adopted child, and, in the case of a pregnant employee, in the 6-week period before the expected birth or placement date. This is the case regardless of how much leave their spouse or partner takes.

Each partner can take up to a total of 24 months.

The unpaid parental leave entitlement includes both:

• Continuous unpaid parental leave, i.e. continuous unpaid parental leave is a period of unbroken leave; and

• Flexible unpaid parental leave – up to 100 days, which can be taken in blocks of single days of leave or more, before and after a period of continuous unpaid parental leave.

The total of these leave periods cannot exceed 12 months, or 24 months if approved.

An employee must give 10 weeks’ notice of the expected date of confinement, with some evidence of the expected date from a doctor.

The employer can refuse a requested extension on reasonable business grounds. This might be because:

• The extension requested is too costly;

• There is no capacity to change the working arrangements of other employees to accommodate the extension requested;

• It would be impractical to change the working arrangements of other employees, or recruit new employees, to accommodate the extension requested;

• The extension requested would be likely to result in a significant loss in efficiency or productivity; or

• The extension requested would be likely to have a significant negative impact on customer service.

Your specific circumstances, including your size and the nature of your business are relevant to whether you have reasonable business grounds to refuse a request.

If you refuse a requested extension or fail to respond to a request in writing within 21 days, however, the employee can lodge a dispute notification which will be dealt with according to the award or through the Fair Work Commission.

It should be noted that a pregnant employee may be entitled to be transferred to an appropriate safe job for an interval before they start unpaid parental leave.

The father of the child cannot commence unpaid parental leave until the date of the birth, though may access carer’s leave if the pregnant mother requires care and support prior to the birth.