THE federal government’s national Paid Parental Leave scheme came into effect on January 1, with eligible working parents now entitled to 18 weeks of government-funded pay at the national minimum wage.
The scheme will be phased in, with payment to employees under the scheme voluntary until June. But from July 1, it will be compulsory to provide parental leave pay to eligible long-term employees who have or adopt a child from that date.
Business’ obligations under the scheme will be to register for PPL with Centrelink, after which funds will be provided to the organisation once notified it has an eligible employee.
The government’s PPL will be on top of any employer-provided paid leave such as recreation or annual leave and employer-provided parental leave.
The scheme was criticised by the coalition and small business advocacy groups when it was announced under former prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2010, with some saying employers having to administer the scheme would be a burden on SMEs.
While the Chamber for Commerce and Industry WA fundamentally supports paid parental leave, it said the proposed scheme would make employers across the country “de-facto Centrelink officers”, forcing them to liaise with government agencies on eligibility, collecting the money from government, then passing it on to their staff.
CCI was in support of a private members bill introduced by the federal opposition which is pushing for the government to take the full administrative burden.
However, a survey released by the Equal Opportunity Commission at the end of last year found the scheme was going to aid employers.
The survey showed more than a quarter of businesses with their own paid parental leave schemes planned to change their policy once the federal government scheme was introduced.
Of those responding to the survey, 59.7 per cent of businesses with more than 100 employees planned to review their own scheme when negotiations were finalised, 11.2 per cent planned to pay the difference between the government paid scheme and the employee’s salary for the government’s 18-week period, while 10.2 per cent said they would pay the current amount of leave on top of the government scheme for the current period of leave.
WA Equal Opportunity Commissioner Yvonne Henderson said it was pleasing to see that some employers were considering paying parental leave alongside their existing payments.
“The federal government has really upped the ante when it comes to paid parental leave,” she said.