Recommendations by the Productivity Commission for the Federal Government of Australia to provide 18 weeks maternity leave for working mothers, and all fathers a fortnight of leave, seems a great initiative and assists in getting the importance of supporting families back on the agenda.
This next step is to make it easy for businesses to manage so that this important initiative isn't hijacked by the need for organisations to be responsible for it's implementation.
Surely all paperwork should be between the Government and recipients, and not the responsibility of business to handle the tax implications etc. The less paperwork employers need to do, the easier it will be to sell this important package to them.
1 comment:
Hi Candy,
I agree with you regarding the need for a Government coordinated approach. I'm currently in Canada and a friend of mine here is about to go on maternity leave. This friend works for a small privately owned business and was recently discussing the maternity leave system in Canada with me. In British Columbia it is coordinated out of the local Centrelink equivalent. My friend simply has to log online and fill out the necessary paper work, taking the onus off of her employer. It seems pretty straight forward and may be worth utilising as a case study for Australia...
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