Maternity leave is for employed women

Posted by Jenni Colwill on 14 March 2010 | 0 Comments

Tags: paid maternity leave

Let me make this clear - despite the attempts of the Rudd government to redefine paid maternity leave, it is not, I repeat NOT, a welfare payment.

Maternity leave is a work-related entitlement. It is TIME OFF WORK because of pregnancy and childbirth.

In most OECD countries all female employees are legally entitled to maternity leave that is paid leave.

In those countries, paid maternity leave is like recreation leave in Australia.

In Australia, recreation leave is a work-related paid leave entitlement available to all employees, men and women, and the payment levels differ according to the income earned in the jobs.

Some organisations also offer their staff other work-related paid leave entitlements - such as carer's leave, or long service leave. These work the same way.

But having a baby is different. For working women in Australia, that is.

When Australian women on government payments (called welfare) have a baby, they continue to receive their government payment.

When Australian women at work have a baby they lose their income if they work in an organisation that does not offer paid maternity leave as a work-related entitlement.

The majority of Australian organisation do not offer paid maternity leave.

The Rudd government is proposing to change this situation so that for 18 weeks they will receive a low level payment from government - not from their employer - at the average wage level, regardless of what they earned before. Personally, I think this is a mean offer and that it won't be enough keep women on high incomes at work.

Employers pay people carer's leave and long service and recreation leave because they recognise that this is a way of keeping their employees (men and women) at work.

They do not pay maternity leave to women because they do not value the women they employ.

In comparison with other OECD countries, the number of women in Australia who leave their jobs after they have babies is high. We need more women to stay at work to make our economy grow.

Why there is so much confusion about who should get paid maternity leave? Why is there so much commentary about it being inequitable if it isn't the same for every woman who has a baby? In my experience, if there is a choice of either conspiracy and incompetence, nine times out of ten it is incompetence. Or stupidity.

Perhaps the policy makers didn't quite understand what they were doing when they made it a payment from government, and not the responsibility of the employers. Or did they?