Paid Parental Leave Scheme kicks in

| June 29, 2011



As of Friday (1 July), the Paid Parental Leave Scheme will be mandatory for all businesses – now is the time for all employers to register their business with the Family Assistance Office.

According to Adrienne Unkovich, executive director at Workforce Guardian, regardless of whether or not you may have employees about to go on parental leave, it’s important to register your business to prepare for the future.


“Make sure you get the administrative burden out of the way and don’t have to do it under pressure when someone lets you know they qualify for the scheme,” recommended Unkovich.

Business owners who do not properly implement the scheme may find themselves penalised by the government.

Under the scheme, employers need to funnel through government funds to their employee on Paid Parental Leave, although Unkovich warned that the government may experience “teething implementation problems” at first. Therefore, small business owners must put in place policies and procedures early in order to handle the possibility of late payments from the government.

It’s also important to create a policy considering the fact that employees on Paid Parental Leave may exit the business halfway through their leave. In this case, small businesses will need to make sure they keep records of any unpaid funds, as these will need to be refunded to the government.

In addition, some employees may be qualified to receive Paid Parental Leave payments, but not actually have worked in your business long enough to be entitled to take the leave. Leave entitlements are stated in the National Employment Standards. Develop a policy around this in your business and ensure that it is clearly communicated with your employees.

For more information, Centrelink has a range of resources to help employers, including an employer toolkit, online publications, and a list of frequently asked questions.

This story was first published at Telstra’s Smarter Business Ideas and is republished here with kind permission of the author.

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