Overview
- The Government committed to improving unpaid parental leave provisions as an outcome of the Jobs Summit. The Government’s Paid Parental Leave Amendment (Improvements for Families and Gender Equality) Bill 2022 (PPL Bill) will amend the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, including to enable parents to access the full paid parental leave entitlement (100 days) flexibly down to a single day.
- Legislative amendments are required to align the entitlement to flexible unpaid parental leave in the Fair Work Act with the forthcoming changes to paid parental leave. This is because the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010 does not provide a leave entitlement but requires an eligible person to not be working during their paid parental leave period. Employees will commonly access their unpaid parental leave entitlement under the Fair Work Act to allow them to be absent from the workplace and access their paid parental leave entitlement. Subject to the passage of the PPL Bill, parents will be able to access their full paid parental leave entitlement (100 days) flexibly. Without amendment, only 30 days of flexible unpaid parental leave would be available under the Fair Work Act.
- In addition, the Fair Work Act currently contains restrictions about when flexible unpaid parental leave can be accessed, with current provisions having the effect of requiring flexible unpaid parental leave to be taken after a period of continuous unpaid parental leave and forfeiting access to continuous blocks of unpaid parental leave once a flexible unpaid parental leave day is taken.
- The unpaid parental leave provisions are also complex and contain rules that may restrict choice for families and increase complexity for employers, such as provisions restricting employee couples from taking more than 8 weeks of unpaid leave at the same time.
Considerations
- The unpaid parental leave framework should complement the paid parental leave scheme to ensure parents can access their parental leave entitlement as intended.
- The unpaid parental leave provisions should balance the need to accommodate flexibility for employees and an employer’s need to plan their workforce needs.
- The unpaid parental leave provisions should be simplified where possible and should support the goal of enabling working parents to better share caring responsibilities.