Parental Leave Bill ‘complex’ and ‘inflexible’

Press, 5 March 1987, Page 8

Parental Leave Bill ‘complex’ and ‘inflexible’

PA Wellington Legislation allowing equal opportunity for parents to take unpaid leave from work for childbirth was unlikely to achieve any of its stated goals, the Federation of Labour said yesterday. The president of the federation, Mr Jim Knox, was addressing Parliament’s Labour Committee, which is considering the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Bill. Mr Knox said that apart from extending eligibility to men, and some other minor changes, the bill largely repeated existing legislation. “We have a piece of legislation that contains narrow eligibility criteria, an inflexible leave period, very fragile employment protection provisions, very complicated notification procedures, vague words and concepts, and the need to resort to the court at nearly every step of the way,” he said. “There is no provision for part-time or flexible hours to be worked to facilitate breast-feeding and bonding.”

He said the F.O.L. was disappointed that it and other representatives of the interested parties were not consulted before the drafting of the bill.

“We would have recommended major changes to the legislation,” he said.

However, Mr Knox said the F.OJL completely endorsed the underlying assumption of the bill, that working women, in particular, were entitled to have "relatively continuous paid employment and the pleasure of children too.”

The F.O.L. described as most unpleasant a provision of the bill that employment had to be taken up at a minimum of seven days notice, while workers had to give three months notice of intended leave. This clause also said the worker had to accept "any position” offered.

The Employers’ Federation told the committee that workers in firms with less than 100 staff should not be entitled to unpaid parental leave. “While there is some acceptance by larger employers that unpaid leave should be available to both parents on the birth or adoption of a child, the federation is convinced that the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Bill’s complex nature will make compliance for small to medium firms extremely difficult if not impossible,” the federation said. The federation said the qualifying period for leave should remain at 18 months and not be reduced to 12 months.