Dear Reader,

I know. It seems like all I’ve been talking about lately in the Bulletin are the Fair Work Act changes – the new Modern Awards, the National Employment Standards, General Protections, the list goes on.

But to be fair, the Fair Work Act is one of the biggest changes to Australian industrial relations legislation in decades, and my mantra is you can never be too prepared!

So I thought that today would be a good time to remind you about one of the least talked about Fair Work Act changes – the changes to your employees’ parental leave entitlements.

How your employees’ parental leave entitlements have doubled…

While you are no doubt well aware that the 1st of January 2010 saw the introduction of the National Employment Standards, what you may not be aware of are the specifics of each of the 10 employment standards.

For example, under the parental leave NES, your employees can still request 12 months of unpaid parental leave but they can also legally request an extra 12 months on top of that. That’s 24 months of unpaid parental leave!

An employee must request the extra leave in writing at least 4 weeks before the end of their original 12 month leave period, and you can only refuse their request on “reasonable business grounds”.

While it’s not yet clear exactly what “reasonable business grounds” are, the odds are that it will be pretty hard to prove you can’t cope without the employee for another 12 months if you’ve already done just that.

But don’t worry – future Employment Law Practical Handbook updates will keep you fully informed about the new parental leave laws. They’ll also make sure you are kept completely up-to-date with all the other changes to IR laws. Not yet a subscriber? Click here to find out more.

Until next time…

Claire

Tags: Legal Obligations, parental leave, parental leave entitlements