Supplementary Submission on Parental Leave to the National Employment Standards Inquiry

Supplementary Submission by the Australian Council of Trade Unions to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations, Skills and Training Inquiry into the Operations and Adequacy of the National Employment Standards

The ACTU welcomes the opportunity to make this supplementary submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations, Skills and Training Inquiry into the Operation and Adequacy of the National Employment Standards (NES).

Our supplementary submission, complementing our original submission to this Inquiry, deals with a range of issues relating to parental leave. Parental leave and related entitlements are dealt with in Division 5 of Part 2-2 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act). Paid parental leave is also the subject of specific legislation, the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010 (Cth) (PPL Act), under which the federal Paid Parental Leave Scheme operates.

Although the NES parental leave provisions were excluded from the scope of this Inquiry, the Terms of Reference indicated that this did not prevent broader consideration of the interaction of these provisions with other NES entitlements.

On this basis, and because other stakeholders addressed parental leave in their submissions, the ACTU considers it necessary to bring the matters covered in this supplementary submission to the Inquiry’s attention.

…