The Guardian 22 February, 2006
Call for
maternity leave national standard
Unions have called for a national standard for maternity leave, following a federal government report finding just seven percent of employers offered the internationally recommended minimum.
A report by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency found most Australian women are a long way short of the recommended 14 weeks leave, set down by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
"It doesn’t surprise me in the least", said Unions NSW Deputy Assistant Secretary Alison Peters, adding that Australia is one of the few first world countries that still does not have a national minimum standard of paid maternity leave.
The report found that over half of Australia’s employers provide no paid maternity leave at all, while 40 per cent of those that do provide six weeks worth, which is less than half of the ILO recommendation.
"This has been a long, on-going saga", said Ms Peters. "The Government’s baby bonus may be equal to 14 weeks pay of minimum wages at best, but it is not the proper paid maternity leave Australian workers should be getting."
Maternity leave is much more than just an income. It carries with it important rights for women, such as the guarantee of employment when their leave finishes, their entitlement to the same job or equivalent work and income. Some maternity leave provisions provide for an initial return to work on a part-time basis. The income paid is based on their wages, not on the minimum wage which might be much lower.
In the public service and such occupations as teaching women have had the right to 12 weeks or more paid maternity leave, were considered to have continuity of employment while on leave and important job guarantees on return to work.
These differences will be-come even more significant as the Howard Government’s new industrial relations legislation takes over.
Individual employment con-tracts (AWAs) are set to wipe these important gains that were won by struggle over many decades. This is one of the reasons Howard and Education Minister Brendan Nelson are pushing so hard force universities and other employers to replace existing awards and enterprise agreements by AWAs. And of course, it gives employers even more flexibility and reduces their costs. It is also consistent with the extreme conservative attitude of this government to women and its model of "family values" where woman’s place is deemed to be in the home raising a family.