CPSU Governing Council has endorsed a plan to campaign to increase public service maternity leave entitlements from 14 to 26 weeks over the next five years.
Calling on the Rudd Labor Government 'to act as a model employer', the resolution spoke of a 'clear and pressing need to modernise paid maternity leave', noting the entitlement in the public sector has remained 'virtually unchanged' for the last 35 years.
CPSU National Secretary Stephen Jones said it was time the debate around paid maternity leave caught up with the changes delivered over the past three decades to workplaces, household budgets and the economy, claiming that the current minimum of 12 weeks in the APS was no longer sufficient. "The workplace has changed, the needs of families have changed and we think it is time to take a more realistic view," he told the ABC.
"It's now more common - in fact it's the norm - that households need two incomes to sustain their standard of living, to pay for their mortgages, to put food on the table, to put their kids through school.
"If one income is lost when the mum takes leave to have a child, that puts a lot of pressure on the household."
Mr Jones said it was time to shift the agenda from a debate about the cost to the employer to a more positive focus on the wellbeing of child and mother. Campaigning for six months as a new PS standard would send a clear message to the rest of the community.
"Why should we have to haggle and make trade-offs for something that should be a right - for a mother and a child to spend the first six months of life together without fear of lack of money to feed them?"
Mr Jones also cited the changing face of the APS - increasingly female and with an average entry age of 32 - as further reasons why the union needed to campaign for an improved maternity leave standard.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has backed the CPSU resolution. "It's absolutely a reasonable ambition to put on the bargaining table," ACTU President Sharan Burrow said, describing six months' paid leave as increasingly the benchmark "nationally and internationally" in bargained outcomes.
However the initial response from the Federal Government has been muted. "We think that women of Australia … are deserving of some support. But we will also only do what is affordable and is fair and responsible in the long term," Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said.
Minister for Families Jenny Macklin said six months' leave was "unlikely" to be affordable.
CSPU's Stephen Jones rejects the argument, claiming those first six months as crucial to both child and parent.
"I think you'd have to look at the cost of not doing it," he said.
Democrats' Work and Family Spokesperson Senator Natasha Stott Despoja agreed. "What exactly does the Government consider affordable?"
"There are other countries which provide six month schemes, suggesting it is feasible," she said.
"I commend the CPSU for pushing the debate on paid maternity leave. The ideal of six months is a good one - for all employees."
Have your say: Do you support the CPSU's call for increased paid maternity leave? Join the debate by posting a comment below or email us at members@cpsu.org.au
Contact details
Stephen Jones National Secretary Ph: 1300 137 636
Comments(38)
Posted by:Amanda Lawson - 30 Apr 2008, 8:52am
I think the six months paid leave is fantastic. My husband and I are trying to have a baby but in the back of our minds we are also worrying about surviving on one wage. The government always states that family is important and this is one way they can give back to their staff
Posted by:rohan goyne - 21 Apr 2008, 9:43am
It is about time the standard established in the 1970's was expanded to reflect the realities of modern life and a year seems equitable. My partner and I are raising two children who will contribute to the future of the nation as they grow up. Maybe part of it should be an option so part of it could be taken as paternity leave as the partner can also contribute more to the early development of children. In our household our family is a shared responsibility.
Posted by:JeeBung - 21 Apr 2008, 9:33am
Extending the mat leave provisions is wrong. People choose to have children and they know up front what time off they can have and plan around it. They know that extending the mat leave using LWOP or LSL will cost them, but they still do it. Likewise for child care. If you can't afford it, then don't have children.
Posted by:Melissa - 17 Apr 2008, 12:12pm
I wholeheartedly support the campaign for an increase in maternity leave to 26 weeks. Of course, unlike those in less fortunate industries, our family have benefited personally from existing maternity leave provisions ? we wouldn?t have been able to have children and buy a house at the same time without my 12 weeks? maternity leave, and baby bonus/family tax entitlements, as I am (or was!) the higher earner in our family. Any further support would be very welcome to any family, but it should be a community-wide entitlement. It never fails to astound me that people cannot see the larger issue, which is that society as a whole needs to support those who have children, as it is the children who are the future - who will go on to grow up and pay taxes, fund our retirement pensions, collect our rubbish, run for parliament, look after us in our nursing homes etc etc. It?s not an individual lifestyle choice. We should act and support each other as communities, not create ?us and them? scenarios.
Posted by:Kelly - 15 Apr 2008, 3:31am
I'm a 32yr old Australian woman working in London in the private sector. If my fiance and i stay here and have a baby, I will receive a 9 months sliding scale maternity package and my job is open for longer. So do I stay away from my own mother and have my babies in the cold and the rain, or come home to the sunshine and my family, but we're we can't buy a house because one wage won't support us? hhhmmm....
I think the six months paid leave is fantastic. My husband and I are trying to have a baby but in the back of our minds we are also worrying about surviving on one wage. The government always states that family is important and this is one way they can give back to their staff
It is about time the standard established in the 1970's was expanded to reflect the realities of modern life and a year seems equitable. My partner and I are raising two children who will contribute to the future of the nation as they grow up. Maybe part of it should be an option so part of it could be taken as paternity leave as the partner can also contribute more to the early development of children. In our household our family is a shared responsibility.
Extending the mat leave provisions is wrong. People choose to have children and they know up front what time off they can have and plan around it. They know that extending the mat leave using LWOP or LSL will cost them, but they still do it. Likewise for child care. If you can't afford it, then don't have children.
I wholeheartedly support the campaign for an increase in maternity leave to 26 weeks. Of course, unlike those in less fortunate industries, our family have benefited personally from existing maternity leave provisions ? we wouldn?t have been able to have children and buy a house at the same time without my 12 weeks? maternity leave, and baby bonus/family tax entitlements, as I am (or was!) the higher earner in our family. Any further support would be very welcome to any family, but it should be a community-wide entitlement. It never fails to astound me that people cannot see the larger issue, which is that society as a whole needs to support those who have children, as it is the children who are the future - who will go on to grow up and pay taxes, fund our retirement pensions, collect our rubbish, run for parliament, look after us in our nursing homes etc etc. It?s not an individual lifestyle choice. We should act and support each other as communities, not create ?us and them? scenarios.
I'm a 32yr old Australian woman working in London in the private sector. If my fiance and i stay here and have a baby, I will receive a 9 months sliding scale maternity package and my job is open for longer. So do I stay away from my own mother and have my babies in the cold and the rain, or come home to the sunshine and my family, but we're we can't buy a house because one wage won't support us? hhhmmm....