Ensuring Digital Signature Lawfulness for Pregnancy Leave Policy in Australia

How to eSign a document: digital signature lawfulness for Pregnancy Leave Policy in Australia

nice to have you company welcome back to the show new paid parental leave rules are set to come into effect from July the 1st this year now these new rules mean employers will have to provide the government funded parental leave pay to staff after that date now for what companies need to do to prepare for those changes I'm joined by Halland Wilcox partner Allison Baker from Melbourne and JY PA who's been with from the start of the show from people and culture strategies as well coming into this one but uh nice to have your company there in Melbourne uh and let's just get underway Allison if we can with you first off can you walk me through what is currently the status quo and what fundamentally Alters on July the 1st yeah thank you Carson at the moment the government scheme started on the 1st of January so all eligible employees have been entitled to the government funded paid parental leave but on the 1st of July the obligation will shift to employers to pay that money so the government will fund employers and then employers will pass that money on to their employees who are eligible to receive it it's give be an example where as I understand it there could be not so much double dealing with an employer an employee getting access to two amounts of leave but if there is a minimum threshold that the government said everyone shall be entitled to you can't then deny an an employee that right simply because they're under an existing contract that limits the right to say even half that amount that's right Carson the government funded paid parental leave will apply to all employees who meet the government's eligibility requirements so as long as they meet those criteria they will get the government funded paid parental leave any schemes that an employee um is has available to them through their employ laer will simply be in addition to the government funded leave all right Jo yeah Alison um good to connect with you again um after some time yes one of the the issues that we were getting a lot of questions in relation to from clients was whether there was that opportunity to uh to offset their existing paid parental leave schemes uh with those government funded amounts and I I think there was some degree of confusion in relation to that was that um something that you saw as well yes was Joy deep we've spent a lot of time at Halland Wilcox advising clients on this issue and generally speaking the government funded leave is to is intended to be in addition to any employer funded policies that were already in place Only If an employer has a discretionary policy that really gives the employer the ability to chop and change what sort of payments they pay would there be any scope to offset but you know I would caution employers um to be very wary if they're going to change their paid parental leave schemes once their obligations start to administer the government scheme from the 1st of July uh because they may in fact have an obligation to continue paying it so by changing it um they might may find themselves um in breach of their obligations and do we know what the I suppose the repercussions are for all of that what does the what does the new legislation say uh they will therefore employers uh be liable for yeah if employers don't comply with obligations under the paid parental Leave Act then uh the fairwork Ombudsman has the power to come and investigate and if they feel that there has been a breach of the ACT then the fairwork Ombudsman can prosecute the employer so there's a number of um options available they could take a softer approach and issue compliance notices and tell employers that they haven't complied with the act and what they need to do to comply but for those employers who refuse to comply with compliance notices or are in serious breach of the they may face prosecution Jord bringing you in on that one as well are you foreseeing certain unintended consequences of the role of the Ombudsman coming on site to paraphrase what Ellison was just saying and if anything upping the anti creating a very adversarial approach and almost as night follows day we could be looking at a claim for uh constructive dismissal that employer can no longer work in this environment because there's been so much dredged up in an unwarranted way sure I think one of the things that we've seen is that the fairwork Ombudsman has been far more active than anyone was expecting certainly far more active than than its predecessor entity under the work choices legislation in this particular context of what we're talking about I think to your point there are some risks there of inquiry um and some questions being asked by Fair work hitsman in relation to what might start off as being scrutiny of the PID prental leave scheme but that can very quickly then merg into issues of broader compliance around parental leave carer responsibilities flexible working requests whether they are properly being responded to bearing in mind that the framework within which employers now have to operate is far more complicated than has ever been the case previously akin to a bit of a fishing Expedition they can launch one once they're inside those those doors well well well I think that if they're having a look at um a number of issues that are triggered by a paid parental leave type complaint there are some things that are probably going to come out that could make some employers feel a bit uncomfortable speaking of feeling uncomfortable Alison back to you there uh in Melbourne when it comes to that idea of how business has reacted to these changes what sort of input have they been given the criticism across so much new legislation that's going on and being drafted in cameras simply that they were excluded are they going to take up the cules and and adopt what they're told to adopt on this cuz they had some say in it there was a bill by um an opposition Minister um put forward to try and take away the obligation from employers so that this would continue to be um a government funded payment that was administered by the government and that bill was defeated um so really employers um have this obligation it's not going to change um in fact arguably we're at the start of paid parental leave and you know I think it's only going to grow going forward um so employers really have a system in place um through this act and they need to comply with it and you know they've really got two months um to get their systems ready so that if uh if an employee is eligible for the payment and the employer has to administer it they're ready to go yeah just on that one as well as we wrap this discussion if an employee is eligible as you just point out there can they also conversely contract out of it if they decide actually I don't want to be away from the calace for 18 weeks I'd rather cash it in literally put that money to work in the bank I've got extended family that can carry out these functions just as well thanks very much mhm uh so you can only get the payment if you're actually the primary caregiver and you're on leave from work once you return to work you're no longer eligible but there is some scope in the act for the payment to be transferred to another primary carer um so usually that will be the other partner as long as they also meet the eligibility requirements and they're going to be the primary caregiver then they can take the remainder of the leave um there's also some scope um for you know grandparents and the like um to also receive the payment if they're going to be the primary carer but again that's conditional on the fact that they also met the eligibility requirements which includes a work test so they must have been in employment prior to the birth or adoption of the child to be able to get the payment so there is some scope to transfer the leave um the leave payment if if needed got it loud and clear you get the last Sage Joy on this one is it going to prove successful or you're looking at problems on the horizon oh I I think there'll be a lot of administrative hassles for employers one final word from from me on this would be that it's important that employers understand there's a difference between the payment aspects of Parental leave and the right to take parental leave which is a separate issue Al together under the legislation key distinction well made and of course more to be discussed as that one works its way into implementation July the 1st Jordy poor people and culture strategies thank you so much and to you in Melbourne Allison Baker from Halland will Cox partner there appreciate your insights thank you p and that