Time for paid maternity leave to become standard in all workplaces says ACTU
27 March 2008, 10:50am
Universal paid maternity leave will have across the board benefits
The move by major retailer Myer to introduce six weeks parental leave for its 10,000 full-time staff is a welcome first step towards a national paid maternity leave system say unions.
Australia lags behind the world in terms of paid maternity leave and moves
like this from Myer will send the right message to government and other
businesses that paid maternity leave should be standard practice.
Currently only one in three Australian working women have access to paid
maternity leave and they are mostly women on higher pay in large companies.
More alarmingly only 8 per cent of women in retail and hospitality receive
some form of paid maternity leave — more than nine in ten women in these
industries are currently missing out.
Unions would like to see Myer’s example filter through to other major
retailers and down into small and medium sized workplaces.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
“Myer’s move to introduce six weeks paid maternity leave is a fantastic step
in the right direction and we commend them on being the first major retailer to
introduce a paid maternity leave scheme.
“Universal paid maternity leave will have across the board benefits not just
for individual families but for the wellbeing of whole communities.
“There is a massive gap between the haves and have-nots in this area with so
few (8%) women in retail and hospitality getting paid maternity leave, while
most (56%) women in professional occupations getting some form of paid maternity
leave.
“The fact that Myer, which has a predominantly female workforce, is offering
paid maternity leave is a significant step in the right direction for paid
maternity leave and we welcome businesses taking this initiative.
“Paid maternity leave should be standard across all workplaces, big and small
and the ACTU would like to see other workplaces following Myer’s example and a
national employment standard that guarantees this important right for Australian
workers.
“Unions have been pushing for paid maternity leave for over a decade and we
are optimistic that we finally have a Federal Government that is taking the need
of working families for paid maternity leave seriously”, said Ms Burrow.
