Parental leave

Parents, caregivers and their children should have the opportunity and the right to spend as much time together as possible during their first months and years together. Children need time to bond with those that care for them.” Parental leave is a crucial working right but it’s also an important tool for enlightened employers who want the economic benefits of retaining experienced workers, ensuring a place for families in their business and contributing to their communities.

TEU campaigns for the rights of parents to choose to spend important bonding time with their new babies and children without sacrificing their jobs or careers.

Links to relevant information:

Department of Labour

The Employment Relations Service provides basic information about the rights and obligations of employees, employers and self-employed persons in respect of parental leave. It has the current parental leave entitlements, featuring statutory paid parental leave for birth mothers, their partners as well as adoptive parents.

Inland Revenue – paid parental leave

Paid parental leave is a government-funded entitlement paid to eligible working mothers and adoptive parents when they take parental leave from their job(s) to care for their newborn or adopted child (under the age of six).” These payments go towards the loss of income that working mothers and adoptive parents experience when they take parental leave from work to care for a new baby or adopted child.

Parental Leave – before, during and after

This toolkit on Combining Parental Leave and a Career at the University of Auckland has been prepared by the Equity office in conjunction with the Tertiary Education Union. It applies at Auckland University only, but contains information that may be helpful to others.

Sue Moroney’s bill to extend Paid Parental Leave to six months

Labour MP, Sue Moroney, currently has a bill before that will, if passed, extend paid parental leave from 14 weeks to six months. The CTU has welcomed the bill and is supporting efforts to see it passed.