This section looked at organisational policies and leave provisions as well as changes to these policies as a result of the implementation of PPL. Data from the EIPS survey indicate that 36 per cent of all organisations offered some type of formally arranged employer-provided leave. Organisations most often provided maternity leave (31 per cent) but also paternity leave (23 per cent) and primary carer’s leave (14 per cent). Employers differ significantly in the provision of leave across size, sector and industry. • Large employers (with 200 or more employees) were most likely to offer paid
leave to allow parents to care for children before or after birth. A total of 64 per cent of large organisations offered some form of paid leave to their employees, in the form of maternity leave (58 per cent), paternity leave (43 per cent) or primary carer’s leave (26 per cent).
• Just over one quarter of medium organisations (20-199 employees) offered employer-paid leave (27 per cent), with 23 per cent offering employer-paid maternity leave, 16 per cent offering employer-paid paternity leave and 10 per cent offering employer-paid primary carer’s leave.
• Small organisations (with less than 20 employees) were the least likely to offer employer-paid leave: 15 per cent of all small employers offered some form of paid leave around the birth of a child. Just 11 per cent offered paid maternity leave, 7 per cent offered paid paternity leave and 4 per cent offered paid primary carer’s leave.
• Employers in the public sector were most likely to offer employer-provided paid leave for parents to care for children before or after birth. Nearly all (92 per cent) of public sector employers offered some form of paid leave: 87 per cent offered paid maternity leave, 67 per cent offered paid paternity leave and 44 per cent offered paid primary carer’s leave. These percentages are significantly lower in the private and not-for-profit sectors.
• Just over half (51 per cent) of employers in the not-for-profit sector offered some form of paid leave: 45 per cent offered paid maternity leave, 32 per cent offered paid paternity leave and 18 per cent offered paid primary carer’s leave.
104 • In the private sector, 24 per cent of employers offered some form of leave: 20 per cent offered paid maternity leave, 14 per cent offered paid paternity leave and 9 per cent offered paid primary carer’s leave.
• Employers in female-dominated industries are significantly less likely to offer employer-paid leave. Just 14 per cent of employers in the Accommodation and Food Services industry offered some form of paid leave, 26 per cent of employers in Administrative and Support Services and 38 per cent of employers in Healthcare and Social Assistance offered paid maternity, paternity or primary carer’s leave.
In addition to employer-provided leave, this section addressed leave eligibility, duration and pay.
• Eligibility for employer-provided leave almost always depended on a qualifying service period.
• The average qualifying service period for employer-provided maternity leave was 12.7 months.
• Public sector employers had the shortest average qualifying service periods. • The average duration of paid maternity leave provided by employers for
permanent and ongoing employees ranged from 10 weeks in the private and not-for-profit sectors to 13 weeks in the public sector.
• Where employers provided paid maternity leave, it was almost always at normal rates of pay. This is universally the case in the public sector, and over 90 per cent of private sector and not-for-profit organisations provided paid leave at normal rates of pay for most types of employees.
• Employers in the public sector were significantly more likely to offer mothers the flexibility to take paid maternity leave at half pay to lengthen the duration of leave. Over three-quarters of public sector employers that provided paid maternity leave offered this flexibility, compared to just over half of a smaller group of private sector employers that provided paid maternity leave.
• A large proportion of employers continued to pay superannuation contributions while employees were on leave, in particular when employees took maternity leave. There are some significant variations across sectors: 78 per cent of public sector employers continued to make superannuation contributions when they provided paid maternity leave, as did 70 per cent of private sector employers and 58 per cent of not-for-profit employers that provided such leave.
This section also addressed the issue of unpaid leave. Long term employees have a right to a guaranteed 12 months unpaid parental leave, with a right to request up to an additional 12 months unpaid leave, to a maximum of 24 months per family.
• Some 44 per cent of employers offered unpaid leave provisions above and beyond the initial NES entitlement of 12 months.
• Large employers were significantly more likely to offer unpaid leave beyond the initial 12 month NES entitlement: 61 per cent of large organisations offered more than 12 months of unpaid leave in comparison to 44 per cent of medium and 26 per cent of small organisations.
Lastly, in relation to HR policies and practices, this section evaluated whether employers implemented changes to leave policies or HR practices leading up to or following the introduction of PPL.
• Only 20 per cent of employers who offered employer-paid leave made changes to these policies leading up to or following the introduction of PPL. • Medium-sized organisations were significantly more likely to make changes to
105 employer-provided leave in comparison to 18 per cent of large and 7 per cent of small employers.
• Nearly half (48 per cent) of the small number of employers who changed their leave policies introduced a new policy in combination with PLP, 42 per cent increased their existing policy by combining it with PLP, 28 per cent created a new stand alone policy, 26 per cent topped up the PPL scheme with their existing policies and 18 per cent increased their existing policies.
• Overall, 3 per cent of all employers in our survey that had previously provided paid parental leave had reduced or withdrawn this leave following the implementation of PPL.
• Only 5 per cent of organisations made changes to their unpaid leave policies. • In organisations with no formal HR policies to manage leave around the birth
of a child, only 12 per cent of employers made changes to what the organisation does if an employee informs them they are pregnant.
• Only 12 per cent of all organisations made changes to HR practices as a result of the introduction of PPL.
• Large organisations were significantly more likely to make changes to HR practices (17 per cent) in comparison to medium (10 per cent) and small (8 per cent) organisations.
• Among the small number of employers who introduced changes to HR practices, these included introducing processes to manage PLP requests (70 per cent), better managing employee expectations about parental leave (54 per cent), re-educating managers to ensure non-discriminatory behaviour (48 per cent) and checking hiring procedures to ensure there is no bias with regard to women of child-bearing age (41 per cent).