For the first time, working parents are entitled to parental leave funded by the taxpayer. While many are praising the schema, it is being met with dismay by some employers.
TRACY BOWDEN, Presenter: The New Year marks a historic turning point in system of industrial relations from Australia. For the first time, working parents are legally entitled to parental leave funded by the taxpayer.Paid the national minimum wage of approximately $ 570 per week, women earn less than $ 150000 that per year can take up to 18 weeks paid leave, transferable to their partners.
And while the scheme has been widely praised by trade unions and industry, there are still some consternation among employers.
Tanya Nolan reports.
TANYA NOLAN, reporter: For MOM first Hayley Mean the introduction of a national scheme for paid parental could not have been better timed.
MEIN HAYLEY: kind of felt somewhat privileged because I know that women have fought before me. And I think that being the first generation, it is quite amazing.
JENNY MACKLIN, Ministre de families: Parents waited decades for this to happen and so many people campaigned long and hard for him. Thus, it is a time for everyone to come together and celebrate.
TANYA NOLAN: is the first for Australia and a great victory Gillard Government policy. He legally enshrines the rights of women to motherhood for the first time since the entry of Australian women paid employment. It enables women workers as Hayley Mein, which are not eligible for their maternity schemes financed by the employer, to achieve 18 weeks vacation financed by the Government with the minimum wage. But this Marketing Manager of 28 years of age are not taking anything for granted.
MEIN HAYLEY: I think it's my right given to pay to have a child. I think it's a blessing for me to have a child.
TANYA NOLAN: others see it as a right hard. High school teacher and mother of a Julie Mumford says motherhood is something that many women working as herself have come to expect, thanks to trading company at work.
JULIE MUMFORD: I feel that I'm taking time to have children, but again, my kids are going to be contributing to society. I've been contributing to society, paying my taxes and do all those good things. And then for this to be a bit more of a pit stop in between, allows me to continue to live the best we can without struggling and still allowing me to get back to work and feeling comfortable about it. It is also choice. I think this is really important for that women have.
TANYA NOLAN: but she says she is a choice your mother never had when she gave the job as an airline hostess to begin a family.
JULIE MUMFORD: She was working during the 1960s and after she had her family, she stopped completely. Some of it was their choice, but it was also his employer choices.
TANYA NOLAN: the introduction of a national scheme for parental leave is the culmination of a campaign of 30 years at Red.
GED KEARNEY, Red PRESIDENT: this is actually one of the most significant institutions think has been introduced since Medicare or even retirement fund. We are waiting for this for a long, long time.
TANYA NOLAN: But President Ged Carney says the fight isn't over, with unions reporting that some companies plan to scrap its own motherhood when employment agreements expire.
KEARNEY GED: We know we have some company trading for example agreements with some old care employers who are waiting for a government scheme to be introduced so that they can chop away rights to hard-fought-for paid maternity leave that already exist.
PETER STRONG, Council of small business organizations: Yeah, I think it will happen. As I say, if I was on a Board of Directors of a midsize business and were fighting, and some medium-sized naturally struggling at the moment, you would look for ways to save money. And you can look at that and say, "well that's going to save us thousands of dollars. Let's scrap our schema schema and use of Government ". So yes, this is a decision that companies will sometimes.
TANYA NOLAN: But Peter Strong, Executive Director of Council of Small Business organizations of Australia, says that it is less likely to happen in small businesses that don't usually have tabs or maternity leave schemes. He says the real risk to companies, including his own bookstore Canberra, is the cost of administering the scheme.
PETER STRONG: Really is bad for your business because they are asking us to do more bureaucracy, they asking us to do something that is completely unnecessary, which is putting these payments through our payroll system. And nobody in the business know that you do not include third parties in any system of payment, unless completely necessary because errors are made, and I guarantee that if they continue to put these payments through small businesses, errors are made, and the people who will suffer are workers who cannot get their money.
TANYA NOLAN: a search by Government of equal opportunities for women in the workplace Agency concluded that more than a quarter of employers intending to change their existing paid parental leave schemes with the introduction of a Government-funded.
Families Minister Jenny Macklin, says that is not the desired result.
JENNY MACKLIN: well we will naturally be monitoring this very, very close and I'll be very disappointed if we are dropping their own schemes of employers. But I think business today recognizes that parental pay is good for your business. They will want to be the employer of choice.
The STRONG PETER: is good especially for workers, no doubt. He really does not benefit any business in any specific way. Monetarily, it just helps to keep workers in the labour market.
JULIE MUMFORD: Is hard work, care for the children. Is love, but works well.
TRACY BOWDEN: Tanya Nolan reporting there.
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