It's Due! Paid Parental Leave in 2017

NTEU Parental Leave Campaign Photo Album 2017

The Sydney Branch of the National Tertiary Education Union has been consistently promoting improvements to parental and related leave arrangements for all staff at the University of Sydney for many years.

We asked our members in 2016 about issues important to them. Fairness in parental leave was consistently seen as an issue core to the quality life of our staff, and their families.

We have put together some of the reasons our members give for supporting the claim on parental leave in 2017.

The relevant clauses of our Log of Claims: 9. Improved parental leave The Agreement will provide for improved parental leave, including: 9.1. 36 weeks paid primary carer’s leave with no qualifying period.

9.2. Remove Clause 215 – limitation on extended parental leave.

9.3. Change to the definition of maternity leave to primary carer’s leave.

9.4. 20 days paid partner leave, with access to a further 20 days of unpaid partner leave.

9.5. A right to return from parental leave part-time or on reduced hours.

9.6. Paid antenatal leave.

9.7. Provision for safe working arrangements during pregnancy.

9.8. Appropriate provisions for permanent care orders, comparable to those for adoption.

4.5. Access to parenteral leave for Casual employees.

“I am currently on paid parental leave. I gave birth to my daughter in July 2016 and will be returning to work in July 2017. Paid parental leave had made it possible for me to care for my daughter in her first year of life as well as continue my career as an academic. “Without these provisions, I would have been unable to do both these things. Pitting a woman's choice to have children against her workplace value isn't right. Paid parental leave has meant I will be returning to work in a sustainable manner.�

“When my son was born I took the available 2 weeks of ‘paternity leave’. More time than that is required to bond with your newborn and adjust to life as a parent.

“I wanted to spend more time with my child, including being a primary carer in the early months, but under the University’s current conditions it isn’t possible for a father to take paid parental leave for more than two weeks.

“This put pressure on my partner to stay at home longer, which meant her career suffered. Better leave for dads can mean better options for mums.”

“Extending the existing employment rights for parents is essential to move beyond lip service to family-friendly work conditions. The workplace culture in universities has become so antithetical to the lived reality of having child-rearing responsibilities. The precariousness that many workers experience in the university system, especially the lack of job security for casuals, is a serious barrier to pursuing academia as a career path. As a PhD student, casual tutor, and also a mother, I feel precluded from pursuing academia beyond my doctorate degree as I cannot reconcile a state of perpetual risk with the need to support my family financially, emotionally and practically�

“For my first baby, not qualifying for the full parental benefit meant that my family had to make extreme decisions about our budget, our accommodation, and the type of care we could afford. We ate into our savings; trying to survive in Sydney on a reduced salary was impossible. I can't imagine what single parents would do under this restriction.

“For my second, I qualified for the full parental benefit and it made a world of difference. Stress was lower, I enjoyed my leave without constantly trying to rebalance the budget, and on returned to work I could make choices about child care based on quality not cost.

“The qualifying period for parental leave is unfair, creates undue stress, and forces families to make family-planning decisions based on their ability to qualify for benefits rather than based on what's best for their family”

“I have worked at the University of Sydney, on casual contracts, since 2012, and I am due to give birth to my first baby in July 2017. I have no entitlement to parental leave as a casual employee.

“The majority of casual university staff are under 40 years of age. People starting families while working in universities are struggling to make ends meet because of a lack of support from their employers.

“It is essential that the University of Sydney, which positions itself as a leading employer in this sector, take a stand to ensure that both men and women working as casual staff are supported in building their families.”

“I have worked at Sydney University for six years. I am a full time member of the faculty and the parent of two young children, one of whom was born while I was employed at the University.

“Balancing work with the birth and care of a child is challenging in the best of times. But for foreign employees like myself who lack any local family support, it is extremely difficult.

“The university should enact policies that support its employees, both for retention purposes and because it is the right thing to do.”

“Making the change to non-discriminatory language, is equally as important as extending entitlements themselves.

The language surrounding maternity and paternity leave in the current EBA isn't just retrograde and discriminatory; it's out of step with the reality of University of Sydney staff, and with community expectations. “The current EBA discriminates against men and women equally, by imposing traditional gender roles that exclude men from becoming their child's primary carer, and force women into that role regardless of their wishes. This is unfair to all families, but especially to non-traditional ones like mine.�

https://www.nteu.org.au/sydney/