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Parental leave is available to employees with 12 months continuous service (excluding casual employees) and is leave associated with the birth or adoption of a child and includes:
- maternity leave (up to 52 weeks leave, of which a maximum of 14 weeks will be paid) which is available only to an employee who is the child's birth mother;
- primary care-giver leave (six weeks paid) (to be taken immediately following other paid parental leave) which is available to an employee who is the child's primary care-giver and who is either the child's birth mother; or adoptive parent; or where both parents are University employees, the birth mother's partner;
- additional leave (six weeks paid) which is available to an employee who is entitled to access primary caregiver's leave, who is either the child's birth mother; or adoptive parent; or where both parents are University employees, the birth mother's partner. This may be taken at a time agreed with the employee's supervisor, up to the child's second birthday;
- adoption leave (14 weeks paid) which is available to an employee who becomes the legal parent of a child and is the child's primary care-giver;
- partner leave (two weeks paid) which is available to an employee who is not the child's primary care-giver but who is the partner of the birth mother of the child; or is an adoptive parent of the child.
Ten (10) weeks written notice to the Supervisor of the intention to take parental leave is required, accompanied by a medical certificate indicating expected date of birth (with a statutory declaration stating the period of any parental leave sought by the employee's partner if they are also an employee of the University). Leave may begin up to 20 weeks prior to the expected date of birth, or earlier where certified by a medical practitioner. Otherwise paid Maternity Leave will commence from the date of birth of the child, and will be continuous for the 14 week period.
Where the partner of the birth mother is also an employee of the University, the aggregate of any periods of parental leave cannot exceed 52 weeks. This excludes any periods of paid parental leave taken by the non-primary care giver. In addition to this:
(a) An employee is not entitled to take unpaid parental leave when his or her partner is on unpaid parental leave.
(b) If the employee contravenes (a), the period of unpaid parental leave that the employee is entitled to is reduced by the period of unpaid leave taken by his or her partner.
An employee returning to work after parental leave is entitled to be employed in their substantive position and may return to work on either a fulltime or fractional basis for a maximum period of 2 years from the return to work date by mutual agreement with the Category 4 Delegate or above. Where mutual agreement is not able to be reached, supervisors should contact Employee Relations in HR for assistance. |