Paid maternity leave in 'best practice' organisations: introduction, implementation and organisational context

Australian Bulletin of Labour, June, 2007 by Sara Charlesworth

Abstract

To date, Australia has no national paid maternity leave scheme, and access to such leave remains limited. In the private and community sectors in particular, workplace provision of paid maternity leave relies on individual enterprise initiatives. However, we still know relatively little about why anal on what basis individual enterprises introduce paid maternity leave. Drawing on case studies of seven 'best practice' enterprises that introduced or increased their provision of paid maternity leave, this paper outlines the diverse rationales and contexts that shape such organisational decisions and the ways in which they are implemented. Paid maternity leave remains fundamental to realising equal employment opportunity for women, yet the research findings suggest that its potential effect can be constrained by limits on formal entitlement and the basis for leave as well as by the practical availability of other work--family benefits.

Introduction

The importance of paid maternity leave has a long history of recognition (HREOC 2002b, p. 11). Two main international instruments, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the ILO Maternity Protection Convention (ILO 183), recognise paid maternity leave as a crucial work-related entitlement for women. In particular, the provision of paid maternity leave is seen as preventing employment discrimination against women on the grounds of marriage and maternity, and ensuring their effective right to work; as a measure to defray across society the costs of having children; and as a positive measure to promote gender equality and assist in the combining of work and family life. Paid maternity leave is today accepted as integral to encouraging mothers' attachment to the labour force and in easing transitions in and out of the paid workforce (HREOC 2002b; OECD 2002, 2005). Cross-national comparisons suggest that the relationship between the provision of paid maternity leave and women's rate of labour force participation is complex and dependent on access to other supportive benefits such as reduced-hours employment and the availability of child care (see Whitehouse 2004). However, the available evidence suggests that paid maternity leave is associated with enhanced employment outcomes and economic security for individual women, as well as with benefits to employers and the economy, including increased productivity (HREOC 2002a, 2000b; OECD 2002, 2007, p. 81).

As often noted, Australia remains one of only two OECD countries without a national paid maternity leave scheme. Currently, outside some long-standing statutory provision for permanent state and federal public servants, (1) the availability of paid maternity leave (PML) in the private and community sectors is dependent on enterprise-level provision. In those sectors some provision for PML has been introduced into a limited number of workplaces, in either single employer collective agreements (union and non-union) as a result of enterprise bargaining, through registered individual agreements, or through voluntary management initiatives. Estimates of the spread of paid maternity leave vary (HREOC 2002a, 2002b; Baird 2003; Baird, Brennan and Cutcher 2002; Baird and Litwin 2004; Baird 2004); however, it is clear that the majority of women in paid employment do not have access to paid maternity leave. ABS data for 2003 suggested that only 36 per cent of female employees (65 per cent in the public sector and 28 per cent in the private sector) had any entitlement to PML (ABS 2003). The more recent Parental Leave in Australia Survey indicates that 37 per cent of mothers employed prior to the birth of their child accessed some paid maternity leave (Whitehouse et al. 2006, p. 11).

The limited access to paid maternity leave is skewed by sector. While 65 per cent of women in the public sector have access to PML, this is only the case for 28 per cent of women in the private sector (ABS 2003). Provision also varies by organisational size, with larger organisations being more likely to provide PML than smaller organisations (EOWA 2004b; Whitehouse, Baird and Hosking 2007). Further, even where paid leave is provided, the available data show a strong pattern of differential access according to industry and occupation, with higher skilled professional employees more likely to have such access than those in less skilled or lower paid work (EOWA 2004b; Baird and Litwin 2004; HREOC 2002a). There is also significant variation across workplaces in the quantum of any paid maternity leave provided, the basis on which it can be accessed, and the conditions that adhere to it (HREOC 2002b, pp. 34-36; Baird 2004).

Proposals for a national paid maternity leave scheme in Australia have emerged from three separate Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) inquiries over the last decade. In 1999, the HREOC Pregnancy and Work Inquiry recommended that the Federal Government commission economic modelling to assess the viability and consequences of such a scheme (HREOC 1999), a recommendation that was eventually rejected. In 2002, a subsequent HREOC inquiry canvassed a number of options for a paid matemity leave scheme, ultimately proposing a federally funded national scheme of 14 weeks leave for women in paid work with a maximum rate of payment set at the level of the federal minimum wage (HREOC 2002b). In 2007, following a wide-ranging inquiry focused on balancing work and family responsibilities, HREOC reiterated its 2002 recommendation for a government-funded national paid maternity leave scheme (HREOC 2007). Despite considerable community support for the 2002 HREOC proposal, the Federal Government rejected it, arguing that a federally funded scheme would be a major new burden on taxpayers and that the scheme ignored mothers not in the paid workforce (O'Neill 2004). The Federal Government has not yet responded to the 2007 HREOC call for a national paid maternity leave scheme. However, neither the Coalition Government nor the Labor Opposition have included the consideration of any such scheme in their policy platforms.