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Saturday July 31, 2010

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Blog: The maternity leave debate

Posted by: 3AW Radio | 5 January, 2010 - 4:17 PM
Maternity Leave

The federal government's new fair work industrial laws have come into play and there is a belief in some quarters that small businesses may suffer from these new laws.

Maternity and parental leave has always being something that business has struggled to come to grips with.

While on one hand they want smart women in their workforce they don't know how to manage their absence while they are away on maternity leave. In the new laws these mothers may now also apply for another 12 months of parental or maternity leave before they return to the workforce.

I am always on about how our children are this country's greatest asset and at all times their welfare and education is this nation's number one priority.

The problem we have is how you balance the need to provide parental care for our children and the impost and disruption it causes to business, when one of their principal employees walks out of the business for two years.

When someone walks away from a business and an industry for two years, you are probably looking at that time for the person to come back on line with where the business is today compared to when they walked away to commence their parental leave.

Businesses are changing so quickly and so dramatically these days, that two years away is equivalent to a lifetime compared to days gone by.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says that the Coalition will implement a policy of paid maternity leaves and admits the Howard Government should have done better in this area.

The federal government wants to introduce an 18-week taxpayer funded paid parental leave scheme from 2011. An estimated 150,000 new mums and dads will be eligible.

We have a real inequality here as well with maternity and parental leave. It seems the mother is the only parent that takes advantage of the leave and the father continues on as work. Is this fair?

Surely it is time for businesses and parents to understand that the father is just as liable for the upbringing of the child and he should be encouraged to take the parental leave in front of the child’s mother.

And you know what? Twelve months away from work at home with the kids may give him a whole new perspective on life that will make him a better employee when he returns to work.

Share your thoughts below.


Blog comments Your Say

  • Nice site nice thoughts dear you sharing a lots of of thing.

    Maternity leave form Monday 10 May, 2010 - 5:20 PM

  • Australia cannot afford this. We are already worried how we are going to pay old age pensions and now we have t worry about maternity leave.
    We've all had kids and managed. Single mothers work and look after their kids already. Some stay on parenting payments for a very long time but some manage to work part-time at least. I did. For years I worked part-time and looked after my kids as a single mom and managed. What is wrong with the system now? If people choose to have children then there is always the father. If no father, government helps singel mothers.

    Don't agree with this at all.

    Countries with a higher population, meaning more tax payers, might be able to afford it but we cannot.

    Peggy Wednesday 6 January, 2010 - 8:34 PM

  • If Child care costs weren't so high you might find Parents returning to work a lot sooner. Unless you are earning the big bucks You can't afford to send your children into care. Not everyone has a relative to look after their children for free.

    Sarah Wednesday 6 January, 2010 - 4:29 PM

  • Why should small business, or any business for that matter, pay for an employee to have a baby and take paid maternity leave. Surely it is the responsibility of the new parents, to manage their affairs to include the time the new mother will be off work, not he employer. After all they get the New Baby bonus from the Government already. This is just another cost to an employer, and could be seen as double dipping.

    Eddie Tuesday 5 January, 2010 - 9:07 PM

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