Priority Improvements to Parental Leave
Other Issues
Whāngai and Customary Adoptions
39. NACEW considered recommending that PPL be extended to cover workers adopting children through a whāngai or customary adoption. We note that when the Social Services Select Committee that considered the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave) Amendment Bill 2002, it reported there was insufficient information available for decisions to be made about extending eligibility to paid parental leave to include 'whangai' and other similar arrangements. At that time, it was envisaged that the information would be gathered and the issue would be re-considered during the one year review of the effects and implementation of PPL.
40. NACEW considers that the numeric significance of whāngai and customary adoptions, and the question of whether there is an appropriate contractual basis that can be developed to enable these adoptions of infants to qualify adopting parents for PPL and job retention on the same basis as statutory adoption, ought to be further investigated in order to ensure that the PPL provisions are inclusive.
Support for Employers
41. The evaluation found it is difficult for employers to manage work flows when a parent is on leave, especially SMEs who tend to reallocate work amongst existing staff rather than hire temporary staff.
42. NACEW considers its recommendations of establishing "Keeping in Touch" provisions and widening the eligibility criteria to cover workers on short term contracts, should make staffing issues easier for employers to manage. NACEW also recommends that discussions are held with the business community and its organisations such as the Chambers of Commerce, Business NZ and equity focussed groups such as the EEO Trust, to assess the best options to better support business.
43. A range of factors point to greater diversity and more flexibility being important characteristics of New Zealand's future workforce and with parental leave, there is an opportunity to support successful approaches to managing diversity and flexibility with a policy setting that many employers can see as benefiting them through assisting the retention of their valued employees. Part of achieving effective support will involve change in attitudes. Research by the EEO Trust with employers has found that workplace culture has a strong impact on parents' use of parental leave.
Issues beyond our brief
44. Some of the submissions we received raised other issues that we saw as tangential to the scope of NACEW's consultation on how parental leave provisions could be improved to more effectively deliver on the government objectives for the programme.
Appendix: Draft Recommendations and Submissions Process
Following the release of the government's parental leave evaluation in May 2007, NACEW agreed on five key recommendations for priority improvements to the scheme. NACEW sought agreement from the Minister of Labour for their recommendations to be circulated to partner and other key organisations for comment before being finalised. The objective of the consultation was to test the level of support for the recommendations and to report on this to the Minister in July 2007.
1. Draft Recommendations
Given the findings of the evaluation and international evidence, NACEW proposes to recommend to the Minister of Labour that priority is given to improving the scheme in the following ways:
Wider eligibility criteria
Recommendation - Widen the eligibility criteria for paid parental leave to the following groups of workers:
- more casual and seasonal workers and people with more than one job
- whāngai and customary adoptions.
Objective - This would allow more workers who have demonstrated workforce attachment to access the parental leave scheme. The parental leave payment would be particularly beneficial to the low income workers in these groups. It would also provide for a greater diversity of family caring arrangements.
Paid parental leave entitlement for fathers
Recommendation - Ring fence some paid parental leave solely for use by fathers/partners. This would be in addition to entitlements for mothers which can be shared.
Objective - This would support greater choice for parents and gender equity in the home. It would assist working fathers to take leave irrespective of whether the mother has an entitlement to paid parental leave, and support fathers to be more involved in the early care of their children. Both mothers and fathers indicated they wanted this in the evaluation.
Flexible leave
Recommendation - More flexible options for taking parental leave, for example, parents can take leave together or one after the other or leave can be taken on a part-time basis up to a certain point in time such as when the child turns three years old. This could include allowing a parent to work for a limited number of days while they are on paid leave without losing their payment, for example, to complete a handover or to undertake training.
Objective - This would support the labour market participation and care choices of parents, allow parents to spread their leave for longer until their child(ren) are able to access more affordable childcare, and make both the start and the return to work easier to manage for both employees and employers. It is also consistent with employer support for the provision of quality flexible work.
Longer leave
Recommendation - Increase the length of PPL to one year as a first step, and then increase the level of payment.
Objective - This would: meet parents stated preferences to be able to take longer periods of leave than they can currently afford; support the labour market participation and care choices of parents; and provide a greater degree of income support for families during a period of significant transition. Increasing the level of payment would also encourage fathers to take more leave to share in their caring responsibilities, allowing mothers to maintain their labour market attachment should they choose to and in turn contribute to pay equity for women.
Employers
Recommendation - Find ways to support employers manage workflow when an employee is on parental leave. This may not require legislative change.
Objective - This would help employers to manage their obligations under the Act and support the parental leave scheme to operate flexibly for both employers and employees. This in turn would allow parents to return to work at a time that meets their needs without disadvantage to their position or pay.
2. Consultation Process
NACEW identified the following groups as likely to have a key interest in amendments to parental leave; Women's Lawyers Associations, New Zealand Law Society's Women's Consultative Group, Women's Health Action Trust, EEO Trust, HRINZ, NZCTU, Business New Zealand, and Business and Professional Women
New Zealand. Following the release of the 2005/06 parental leave evaluation in
May 2007, NACEW sent its members information for their wider networks and also contacted its partner organisations (Maori Women's Welfare League, PACIFICA, Rural Women New Zealand, National Council of Women of New Zealand, and YWCA). Thirty-six organisations and individuals were contacted in total.
The timeframe for the process was constrained to two weeks due to the limited time between the public release of the parental leave evaluation and the deadline for reporting back to the Minister. Given the timeframe, NACEW was pleased with the number and quality of the submissions it received.
