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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
FAIR WORK AMENDMENT (PAID PARENTAL LEAVE) BILL 2009
2008-2009
The Parliament of the
Commonwealth of Australia
THE SENATE
Presented and read a first time
Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental
Leave) Bill 2009
No. , 2009
(Senator Hanson-Young)
A Bill for an Act to amend the Fair Work Act 2009
to guarantee 26 weeks government-funded paid
parental leave, and for related purposes
i Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009
Contents
1
Short title ............................................................................................ 1
2
Commencement .................................................................................. 1
3
Object.................................................................................................. 1
4
Schedule(s) ......................................................................................... 2
Schedule 1--Amendme nts providing for paid pare ntal leave
3
Fair Work Act 2009
3
Schedule 2--Consequential ame ndme nts
7
Fair Work Act 2009
7
Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009 1
A Bill for an Act to amend the Fair Work Act 2009
1
to guarantee 26 weeks government-funded paid
2
parental leave, and for related purposes
3
The Parliament of Australia enacts:
4
1 Short title
5
This Act may be cited as the Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental
6
Leave) Act 2009.
7
2 Commence ment
8
This Act commences on the day after it receives the Royal Assent.
9
3 Object
10
The object of this Act is to give effect, or further effect, to:
11
2 Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009
(a) Article 11.2(b), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
1
of Discrimination against Women, 1979; and
2
(b) the Maternity Protection Convention, which the General
3
Conference of the International Labour Organisation adopted
4
on 30 May 2000 and which is also known as
5
Recommendation No. 183; and
6
(c) the World Health Organization global strategy to ensure
7
sufficient maternity leave is provided to mothers, promoting
8
and supporting exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months;
9
to guarantee 26 weeks government-funded paid parental leave to
10
all parents in the workforce whether employed on a full-time,
11
part-time, casual, contractual or self-employed basis.
12
4 Schedule(s)
13
Each Act that is specified in a Schedule to this Act is amended or
14
repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule
15
concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this Act has effect
16
according to its terms.
17
18
Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009 3
Schedule 1
--
Amendments providing for paid
1
parental leave
2
Fair Work Act 2009
3
1 Section 70
4
Repeal the section, substitute:
5
70 Entitle ment to parental leave
6
(1) An employee is entitled to 12 months of parental leave if:
7
(a) the leave is associated with:
8
(i) the birth of a child of the employee or the employee's
9
spouse or de facto partner; or
10
(ii) the placement of a child with the employee for
11
adoption; and
12
(b) the employee has or will have a responsibility for the care of
13
the child.
14
Note 1:
Entitlement is also affected by section 67 (which deals with length of
15
the employee's service) and, for adoption, section 68 (which deals
16
with the age etc. of the adopted child).
17
Note 2:
The 12 months is reduced by the amount of any unpaid special
18
maternity leave the employee has taken (see subsection 80(7)).
19
(2) An employee is entitled to take up to 26 weeks of parental leave as
20
paid parental leave and the remainder as unpaid parental leave.
21
Note:
Subdivision BA of this Division deals with paid parental leave.
22
2 After section 79
23
Insert:
24
Subdivision BA--Paid parental leave
25
79A Entitlement to paid parental leave
26
(1) An employee who is entitled to parental leave may take up to 26
27
weeks of that leave as paid parental leave;.
28
Note:
Section 70 deals with an employee's entitlement to parental leave.
29
4 Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009
(2) If the employee's spouse or de facto partner also has an entitlement
1
to parental leave under this Division, the total period of paid
2
parental leave to which the couple is entitled is 26 weeks, which
3
may be shared between them in accordance with section 79C.
4
(3) The employee must take the paid parental leave in a single
5
continuous period during the period of the employee's parental
6
leave.
7
(4) Nothing in this section prevents an employer paying an additional
8
amount under a fair work instrument to an employee taking paid
9
parental leave.
10
79B Interaction with other entitle ments
11
If an employee applies to take, and takes, a period of paid parental
12
leave in relation to the birth or adoption of a child, then neither the
13
employee nor the employee's spouse or de facto partner is entitled
14
to be paid:
15
(a) a payment under Part 3 of the A New Tax System (Family
16
Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (baby bonus
17
payment); or
18
(b) any paid maternity leave, paternity leave or other parental
19
leave payment or entitlement under any other
20
Commonwealth or State or Territory law;
21
in relation to the birth or adoption of the child.
22
79C Pe riod of paid pare ntal leave
23
(1) The period of paid parental leave to which an employee is entitled
24
is:
25
(a) in relation to birth-related leave--6 weeks' leave to the
26
birth-mother and 20 weeks' leave, which may be shared
27
between the employee and the employee's spouse or de facto
28
partner;
29
(b) in relation to adoption leave--26 weeks' leave, which may
30
be shared between the employee and the employee's spouse
31
or de facto partner.
32
(2) Paid parental leave cannot be shared between an employee and the
33
employee's spouse or de facto partner unless each of them has an
34
entitlement to parental leave under Subdivision B.
35
Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009 5
79D Amount of paid parental leave entitle ment
1
(1) Subject to this section, the paid parental leave entitlement will be
2
paid at an amount equivalent to the national minimum wage.
3
Note:
The relevant minimum wage amount at October 2008 was $543.78.
4
(2) For employees who are not full-time employees, the paid parental
5
leave entitlement will be paid as a proportion of the amount
6
specified in subsection (1) which is pro-rata in accordance with the
7
amount of time worked by the employee.
8
Example: If an employee works part-time at a rate of 60% of the time of a
9
full-time employee, that part-time employee is eligible for 60% of the
10
paid parental leave entitlement.
11
(3) An employee can make a request to the employer to have the paid
12
parental leave entitlement paid at half the rate to which he or she
13
would otherwise be entitled, for twice as long, and the employer
14
may refuse the request only on reasonable business grounds.
15
79E Administration of leave entitle ment
16
(1) Paid parental leave is payable to eligible employees by means of a
17
payment which must be made by the Commonwealth to the
18
employer, who must then make the payment to the employee:
19
(a) in accordance with the employer's usual method of paying
20
the employee's leave entitlements; or
21
(b) if there is agreement between the employer and employee--
22
by another method.
23
(2) Parental leave payments are to be treated as wage and salary
24
income for the purposes of taxation, superannuation and other
25
relevant laws and agreements.
26
79F Application to independent contractors and the self-employed
27
(1) The Minister and the Treasurer must, as soon as practicable,
28
determine by legislative instrument a scheme to provide an
29
equivalent benefit to individuals who are independent contractors
30
or self-employed.
31
(2) The scheme must provide:
32
(a) an entitlement to an equivalent financial benefit;
33
6 Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009
(b) the option of sharing the benefit between the individual and
1
the individual's eligible spouse or de facto partner;
2
(c) a choice between taking that benefit or a baby bonus
3
payment.
4
79G Appropriation
5
Payments by the Commonwealth to fund paid parental leave or
6
equivalent benefits payable under this Subdivision are to be made
7
from money appropriated by the Parliament for that purpose.
8
3 Transitional
9
Until the first national minimum wage order made by Fair Work
10
Australia under Part 2-6 of the Fair Work Act 2009 comes into
11
operation, subsection 79D(1) has effect as if it were modified by
12
omitting "national minimum wage" and substituting "federal minimum
13
wage set from time to time by the Australian Fair Pay Commission".
14
Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009 7
Schedule 2
--
Consequential amendments
1
Fair Work Act 2009
2
1 Amendment of reference
3
The specified provisions listed in this Schedule are amended by
4
omitting "unpaid parental leave" and substituting "parental leave".
5
2 Subparagraph 67(2)(b)(iii)
6
3 Paragraphs 67(3)(b), 67(3)(c) (twice occurring), 67(4)(a) and
7
67(5)(a)
8
4 Subsection 71(1)
9
5 Paragraph 71(1)(b)
10
6 Subsections 72(1) and 72(5) (twice occurring)
11
7 Paragraph 72(6)(b)
12
8 Subsection 72(6) (note) (twice occurring)
13
9 Subsection 73(1)
14
10 Paragraphs 73(3)(b) and 73(4)(a) and (b)
15
11 Subsection 73(4) (note) (twice occurring)
16
12 Subsections 74(5) and (7)
17
13 Paragraphs 75(1)(a) and (2)(b) and (c)
18
14 Subsections 75(3), (5) and (6)
19
Note:
The heading to section 75 is altered by omitting "unpaid".
20
15 Subsections 76(1) (twice occurring) and 76(6)
21
16 Paragraphs 76(6)(a), (b) and (c)
22
Note:
The heading to section 76 is altered by omitting "unpaid".
23
8 Fair Work Amendment (Paid Parental Leave) Bill 2009 No. , 2009
17 Section 77 (twice occurring)
1
18 Subsections 78(1) and (4)
2
19 Subsection 79(1) (second occurring)
3
Note:
The heading to section 76 is altered by omitting "paid" and substituting "other".
4
20 Paragraphs 81(1)(a) and (b)
5
21 Subsection 82(2)
6
Note:
The heading to subsection 82(2) is altered by omitting "unpaid".
7
22 Paragraphs 83(1)(a) and (2)(a) and (b)
8