Industrial Instruments and Parental Leave in Australia

This article discusses industrial instruments in Australia, including the Fair Work Act and the National Employment Standards. It also covers parental leave entitlements, including those offered by Woolworths, and recent proposed changes to the system. The article concludes with a case study of Grant Thornton's flexible parental leave policy.

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Examples of industrial instruments include a pre-reform federal award and NAPSAs. The
minimal conditions stipulated under the Act will automatically apply and cannot be superseded
by any other prearrangement amongst the employer and an employee. The Fair Work Act
presented modern awards and enterprise pacts as new industrial tools, the Fair Work Act of 2009
conserved a number of existing industrial instruments(Commission, 2016).
Under the Fair Work Act, business owners can be held liable for breaches of the Act that
occurred way before they took ownership of the business. On many occasions, organizations
have being found liable under the Fair Work Act for failing to understand what their obligations
are under the Act. Employer obligations are rather complex and are constantly changing making
it rather difficult for employers to keep up with such changes. Breach of the Act can attract fines
of up to $12,600 for individuals and $63,000 plus any outstanding entitlement for employers.
The act provides for civil penalties which include issues related with the protected and
unprotected industrial action, modern awards and enterprise agreements, compliance with the
National Employment Standards, right of entry, and the protection of workplace rights and other
broad fortifications(“Industrial instrument | Workplace Info,” 2018).
Woolworth Australia
All Woolworth permanent employees working on either full time or part time employed
for a continuous period of not less than two years are entitled for an 8 weeks compensated
parental leave. The compensation is divided into two; 6 weeks remunerated parental leave and
two-week return to work bonus if you report to work within the first six months. Paid maternity
and paternity leave and extended unpaid leave allowed due to large number of employees willing
to work more. The parental leave together with annual leave and long service leave can amount
to 104 weeks.The paid parental leave is among some of the best benefits offered to its employees

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as compared to other companies in the same field in terms of benefits offered. In line with the
company policy, Woolworth recently announced paid leave for the first time in Australian
history making it a competitive work environment for its female employees. It is also among the
largest employers of women in Australia. Woolworths offers her employees an aggregate of
eight weeks' paid leave with a preliminary six weeks and extra two weeks after the female
resume work. With time, the unpaid leave will change from one year to two. The flexibility
offered by the new scheme makes Woolworth Australia one of the most sought after employer
especially among women. The parental leave set a precedence in Australia however when
compared with international standards, the award is inadequate compared with how other
companies outside Australia does(“Industrial instrument | Workplace Info,” 2018).
The NES relate to all personnel under the national workplace relations system, in spite of
any contract, award, and pact. As per the NES, the least possible entitlement to unpaid parental
and associated entitlements is applicable to all personnel. The award goes further to recognize
same sex marriages. Apart from the unpaid parental leave, the NES further offers several related
entitlements including a return to work guarantee, consultation requirements, unpaid pre-
adoption leave, unpaid distinctive maternity leave, and the right to transfer to a safer job in
appropriate cases. All workers in Australia are qualified for unpaid parental leave if they have
concluded a minimal of 12 months of uninterrupted service with their employer. Casuals are
entitled to the parental leave if they have being contracted by the organization on a consistent
and organized basis for a structured period exceeding of a minimum of 12 months. Also, where
were it not for the birth or the adoption it would be reasonable to assume that they would still be
contracted on a regular and systematic basis (Australian Government, 2016).

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All authorised associates of an employee couple may take an isolated period of up to 12
months of unpaid parental leave. Parental leave is only applicable to workers who have or will
have the obligation of raising and caring for a child. The leave of absence must be directly linked
to the birth of a baby to the worker and their respective spouses or during the placement of a
child for adoption. Under the Family law Act 1975; a child is anyone who is the said person
biological, stepchild, or the adopted child. The employees de facto partner is anyone who,
although both the employee and the other partner are not an official couple, they live together in
a affiliation as a couple on a candid domestic basis(Harrison Human Resource, 2017).
The grounds for taking the parental leave are dependent on whether it is one employee
who takes the leave or whether is both members of an employee couple taking the leave. Where
it is a single worker charming the leave, it must be taken in a single continuous period. Others
include; in case of a pregnant employee, the leave can take effect up to six months before the
child is born or a longer period depending on the agreement between the employer and
employee, for those willing to adopt the leave takes effect on the birthday or appointment as
legitimate parents to the adopted child(Parliament of Australia, 2015). The leave can also come
to life within the first year after birth or placement if the employee’s spouse is not an employee
or the spouse has an obligation in the care of the child. Where both of the employed couple are
proceeding for leave; the following guidelines takes effect, they are entitled to no more than two
years of leave amongst them but taken separately within a single continuous period(Parliament
of Australia, 2018). Where the employee is pregnant, the leave can start of six weeks before the
expected date of birth or earlier as greed between the employee and employer for the couple who
is, not pregnant leave starts on the date of placement or birth date. Both personnel of an
employer may proceed for leave during the same time for a period of two months and should be

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taken within the first year of the child’s birth or placement. The concurrent leave forms part of
the unpaid leave and is deductible from the employee’s unpaid parental leave(Business Victoria;
Australian Government, 2015).
Having exhausted the 12 months on parental leave, the law allows an extension of the 12
months to another 12 becoming 24 months, this can only be done in writing. This relies on the
assumption that the extra 12 months being sought after have not being used by the couple. The
letter must be sent within the last 4 weeks of the 12 months parental leave. The grounds for
refusing to grant the extension include the effect the extension will have on the workplace,
inability to hire a replacement, and the reduced capacity of the workforce to share the extra
workload(Australian Government, 2018).
To save on money, Australian government proposes scaling back to make the system
fairer and more sustainable. Under the current system, parents who earn up to $150,000 annually
have access to 18 weeks of leave at the minimum age translating to about $12000 besides any
other employee contributions. The proposes changes increases the weeks from 18 to 20, however
making the qualifications more difficult for women to receive the full tax payer funded
entitlement provided that the employer offers a paid leave. This follows the acknowledgement
that employers need to offer viable bids with an aim of retaining accomplished female employees
and their male peers, and firms can support stable and healthy families while benefiting their
bottom line(Schneiders, 2008).
The family set up is quickly changing whereby modern families are rather diverse. At
Grant Thornton, this has being a cause for dispute between the employers whereby the employer
shares sentiments suggesting that some statuses simply are not protected well enough in the

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workplace. Women are termed as the primary caregivers and their male counterparts as full time
employees. Due to financial constraints, many of the employees are forced to return to work
prematurely. The return to work bonus was meant to take care of this. New parents received
enhanced maternity pay (EMP), which was paid during weeks seven to 19 of maternity leave at
50% of salary. Individuals also got a return to work bonus equivalent to two months’ salary. To
address the problem, Grant Thornton pushed to put in place a more flexible policy allowing
parents to choose what was needed to make their work easier for them to meet the company’s
bottom line. As per the new policy, employees are allowed to use part of their salary as a pot,
which can be used to top up their statutory pay while on leave. Mothers and those adopting are
allowed to transfer some of their allowances into a shared parental leave pay. Moreover, fathers
are allowed up to four weeks of fully paid shared parental leave which is beyond the paid two
weeks paternity leave(“Case study: Parental leave at Grant Thornton,” 2018).

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References
Australian Government, 2018 Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website. Fair Work
Ombudsman. URL https://www.fairwork.gov.au/ (accessed 9.1.18).
Business Victoria; Australian Government, J., 2015. Parental leave policies and staff support.
URL http://www.business.vic.gov.au/hiring-and-managing-staff/employer-responsibilities/paid-
parental-leave-maternity-and-paternity-leave (accessed 9.1.18).
Case study: Parental leave at Grant Thornton 2014 URL
http://hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/case-study-parental-leave-at-grant-thornton (accessed
9.1.18).
Commission, F.W., 2016. Industrial instrument coverage & reasons for use. FWC Main Site.
URL https://www.fwc.gov.au/resources/research/australian-workplace-relations-study/first-
findings-report/4-employment-practices/industrial-instrument-coverage-reasons-use (accessed
9.1.18).
Harrison Human Resource, 2017. 5 Essentials of Employee Entitlements. Harrison Hum.
Resource.
Industrial instrument | Workplace Info 2014. URL
http://workplaceinfo.com.au/resources/employment-topics-a-z/industrial-instrument (accessed
9.1.18).
Parliamemt of Australia, C., 2015 Paid parental leave.
https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/
pubs/BN/0910/PaidParentalLeave

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Schneiders, B., 2008. Woolies offers paid maternity leave. Syd. Morning Her. URL
https://www.smh.com.au/national/woolies-offers-paid-maternity-leave-20080605-2mcc.html
(accessed 9.1.18).