ACTU Sharan Burrow said:

"The existing amount of leave for people who need to care for a child or relative is inadequate and the ACTU claim will help many hundreds of thousands of parents, especially those with young children."

"A recent survey shows many parents with young children need at least 5 days a year for caring purposes."

"The new carers leave provision would ensure that parents - particularly mothers - would have enough paid leave to care for family members without being forced to use up their own personal sick leave entitlements."

"The ACTU today released ABS data which shows that in any two week work period over 30,000 employees take unpaid leave to care for a family member."

"When paid as well as unpaid leave is taken into account, the data shows that as many as 100,000 employees every fortnight require leave for family purposes, and that this includes:

• 11,500 women taking leave for pregnancy
• 54,200 people caring for an ill child or family member
• 33,800 people spending time with a child or attending a school appointment
• 4,100 employees with a childcare difficulty or school vacation

"The ACTU Executive resolved today to pursue:

1. A national system of at least 14 weeks paid maternity leave that is available to mothers at the time of the birth of their child.
2. Reform of the award safety net to improve support for parents and people who combine caring with paid work through the prosecution of a Work and Family Test Case before the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that includes the following key claims:

• A separate new entitlement of 5 days of paid carers leave to ensure that employees with caring responsibilities are not disadvantaged by insufficient personal (sick) leave.
• The extension of unpaid parental leave to 24 months.
• A choice for full time workers to return to work part-time after the birth of a child.
• Options for employees to request for flexible working hours, holiday times and alternate places of work.
• Providing all employees, including casuals, access to unpaid family emergency leave.

"There are a few far-sighted employers willing to implement more family-friendly policies but too many others will only respond if changes are made to industrial awards."