Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697633488182.pdf (Australia)
Australian Education Union Ground Floor, 120 Clarendon Street, Southbank, Victoria, 3006 PO Box 1158, South Melbourne, Victoria, 3205 Federal Secretary : Susan Hopgood Federal President : Correna Haythorpe Federal Office Phone : +61 (0)3 9693 1800 Fax : +61 (0)3 9693 1805 Email : aeu@aeufederal.org.au Web : www.aeufederal.org.au 15 December 2016 Committee Secretary Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 Email: community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au Dear Sir/Madam, Re: AEU Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016 Please find attached the Australian Education Union’s submission in response to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016.
Please contact me if you have any questions in relation to this submission.
Yours sincerely, Susan Hopgood Federal Secretary An affiliate of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Education International (EI) Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016Submission 46 Australian Education Union Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill (2016) December 2016 Correna Haythorpe Federal President Susan Hopgood Federal Secretary Australian Education Union PO Box 1158 South Melbourne Vic 3205 Telephone: +61 (0)3 9693 1800 Facsimile: +61 (0)3 9693 1805 Web: E-mail: www.aeufederal.org.au aeu@aeufederal.org.au Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016Submission 46 INTRODUCTION The Australian Education Union (AEU) represents more than 183,000 members employed in public primary, secondary and special schools and the early childhood, TAFE and adult provision sectors as teachers, educational leaders, education assistants or support staff across Australia.
Of the 38,000 Australian women estimated to be adversely affected by the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill (2016), we estimate that approximately 12,600 are teachers in public schools.

These teachers and our other members in public education make a significant contribution to Australian society.

The Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave (PPL) Scheme represents a small investment over their working lives, with significant returns in women’s workplace participation and maternal and child health.
This is the AEU’s fifth submission in recent years to the Australian Government and its Agencies regarding the importance of maintaining and building on a Commonwealth PPL Scheme and we refer you to our earlier submissions:  July 2015, Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee regarding the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill 2015  May 2013, FaHCSIA Review of the Government’s Paid Parental Leave (PPL) Scheme  October 2011, Submission to the Australian Governments Dad and Partner Pay Consultation  June 2008, Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Paid Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave The policy case for a comprehensive Commonwealth PPL Scheme, as articulated in these submissions, has not changed.
What has changed is the political will to defend the employment rights of working women and the wellbeing of children and families.

Our support for the current Commonwealth PPL Scheme is summarised thus:  The World Health Organisation recommends that women spend a minimum of 26 weeks recovering from childbirth, bonding with and exclusively breastfeeding their babies.

The Commonwealth PPL Scheme combined with employer entitlements brings many of our members close to 26 weeks of paid leave.
The Productivity Commission Inquiry, Paid Parental Leave: Support for Parents with Newborn Children, identified the promotion of child and maternal health as one of the strongest reasons for supporting a paid parental leave scheme.

They also recognised the potential harm to women of an early return to work.
The Coalition’s previous PPL AEU Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer PPL Bill 2016 2 Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016Submission 46 proposal recognised this body of research1.

No new research has emerged to counter this body of evidence or justify a policy change.

 The Commonwealth PPL Scheme is a minimal provision by international standards2.
Additional employer leave is required to bring it anywhere close to the OECD average, and the minimum 26 weeks recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Additional employer contributions are part of the Scheme’s design and not a justification for removing the Commonwealth’s contribution.

 The Commonwealth PPL Scheme is a successful tool for increasing women’s participation in the workplace.
The 2014 review of the Scheme found that it had “a clear effect of delaying mothers’ return to work up to about six months after the birth of their baby, and then slightly increasing their probability of returning to work before the baby’s first birthday3”.

 The Commonwealth PPL Scheme is a modest investment over a female education worker’s working life.

The Productivity Commission estimated the likelihood of a single employer in the Education industry experiencing a family leave event as around 2%4.
The average primary teacher working today had been teaching for 16.1 years and secondary teacher for 17.3 years5.

This is a strong return on government investment in keeping highly skilled professional women engaged in work of great social benefit.

 Public education competes with other industries to attract university educated young people.

It is poorly paid relative to some other university qualified professions.
Conditions that support young men and women to balance work and family lives are important tools for attracting skilled workers, particularly in “hard to staff” schools and in skills shortage subject areas.

The proposed bill neutralises the value of employer provided paid parental leave, effectively removing it as a recruitment and retention tool.
The Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016 There is nothing in in the Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill (2016), to allay the concerns raised by the AEU in relation to the 2015 Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill.
That is, if passed into law, the Bill will have the following impacts on our members:  Force women to return to work before they or their babies are ready,  Reduce the rates of babies being exclusively breastfed for the first 26 weeks, as recommended by the World Health Organisation,  Put additional financial pressure on young families, 1 The Coalition’s Policy for Paid Parental Leave, August 2013, http://www.appa.asn.au/election2013/Coalition‐policy‐for‐ paid‐parental‐leave.pdf 2 OECD Family database: www.oecd.org/social/family/database.htm 3 University of Queensland, Institute for Social Science Research, PPL Evaluation Final Report, November, 2014 Available: https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/03_2015/finalphase4_report_6_march_2015_0.pdf 4 Productivity Commission Inquiry Report: Paid Parental Leave: Support for Parents with Newborn Children, No.
47, 28 February 2009, Business Impacts, Table 7.1, p 7.5 5 McKenzie, et al 2004. p 79.
AEU Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer PPL Bill 2016 3 Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016Submission 46  Increase the challenge of attracting young men and women into teaching in key skills shortage areas, Fundamentally change PPL from an industrial entitlement aimed at boosting women’s participation in the workplace to a welfare safety net provision,  Undermine women’s participation and gender equity in the workplace.
 Force women who cannot find or afford adequate child care to lose their employment position.

Additional problems with the 2016 proposed Bill are as follows: Limits leave to an inadequate 18 weeks The 2015 Fairer Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill reduced access to the Commonwealth PPL Scheme for our members on the basis of the dollar amount of employer provided parental leave.
The 2016 Bill reduces access on the basis of weeks of leave, effectively setting 18 weeks as the upper limit for PPL of any kind.

18 weeks at the minimum wage is very low relative to the OECD average.

It is less than the time recommended by the World Health Organisation for women to recover from childbirth and exclusively breastfeed a baby.
There are very few childcare places available for 18 week old babies, and those positions are government subsidised, effectively pushing costs from one Commonwealth budget area to another.

Loss of Flexibility Many of our Enterprise Agreements allow for women to take a longer period of employer provided Paid Parental Leave at half pay.
A great many of our members make financial sacrifices to take up this option, because, while a return to work after 26 weeks is better than after 18 weeks, it is still not ideal for many families.

At 6 months of age, many babies are still not sleeping through the night and if the child has a disability or other special need, it tends to emerge around this time.

Childcare places are still very hard to secure.


The proposed Bill, based on weeks of leave, removes the incentive to have more time with a baby at half pay.

It effectively limits the choices that families have for the care of their young babies.
Casuals and contracted staff could miss out completely The Bill reduces access to the Commonwealth PPL Scheme for those with an employer provided “Primary Carer’s Leave”, defined as: an enforceable entitlement that is part of the employee’s terms or conditions of employment, including entitlements that arise in an enterprise agreement, modern award or workplace policy (incorporated by reference or impliedly in a contract of employment), entitlements that are implied by action, and entitlements from other sources.
The AEU has many members who are long term casuals or on short term contracts, who have PPL in their enterprise agreement or Award, but who are unable to access this entitlement because they don’t meet the eligibility requirements related to patterns of work in the preceding period.
The Bill suggests that the existence of the leave in the industrial instrument AEU Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer PPL Bill 2016 4 Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016Submission 46 is the defining factor in determining eligibility, NOT the fact that a person has been able to avail themselves of the leave.

This could leave many of our members with no access to either the Commonwealth Scheme or their employer provided scheme.
The Bill is an attack on Public Sector Workers Most public sector workers have entitlements to paid parental leave in an Enterprise Agreement or Award.

The private sector is more likely to include the leave as part of company policy.

The test for whether or not a policy is incorporated into an employment contract is not straightforward, and depends on the individual circumstances of the case.
Determining whether each specific private enterprise contract meets the definition of employer provided Paid Carers Leave in the Bill would be impossible to administer.

Industry groups have already identified that the private sector will simply alter the definition of PPL within company policies to get around the eligibility requirements of the Bill6.

This will mean that the savings from the Bill will fall on teachers, education support staff, nurses, public servants and other public sector workers.
Conclusion Properly funded Paid Parental Leave of a minimum of 26 weeks is an investment in Australian working women.

It reaps rewards that are long term.

Having women returning to work at a time they are ready to take on challenges and having healthy adjusted babies is crucial to Australia’s future.

The Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill (2016) works against this.

The Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill (2016) takes the Scheme away from the design recommend by the Productivity Commission.
It is not supported by the findings of the expert evaluation of the Paid Parental Leave scheme, nor by current Australian or International research.

It does not reflect the growing demands of Australians for policies that allow both men and women to balance work and family life.

It doesn’t reflect the realities of life in Australia’s major cities in which both partners need to work in order to afford a home.
It goes against the trend of other OECD countries who are expanding rather than shrinking paid parental leave provisions.

Its capacity to achieve savings is arguable and it will create unexpected budget problems in the maternal health and childcare budgets.

It unfairly targets Australian working women, particularly those working in the public sector.

It represents poor public policy and should be rejected.
6 Maternity leave cut ‘to curb female participation in workforce’ Phoebe Wearne‐ The West Australian on October 25, 2016 https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/32996069/maternity‐leave‐cut‐to‐curb‐female‐participation‐in‐ workforce/ AEU Submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Fairer PPL Bill 2016 5 Fairer Paid Parental Leave Bill 2016Submission 46