On 26 November 2020, the Fair Work Act was amended to introduce greater flexibility for employees taking unpaid parental leave. Employees can now take up to 30 days of “flexible parental leave” at any time up to two years after the birth or adoption of a child, including after the employee has returned to work from their first period of parental leave.
This change means that an employee on unpaid parental leave can now take up to six weeks of their maximum 12 month entitlement unpaid parental leave within the first 24 months of the birth/adoption of a child.
Effectively we now have two types of unpaid parental leave – continuous and flexible.
Parents may choose to take flexible unpaid leave for several reasons including to share caring responsibilities between parents or to assist with gradually returning to work.
For example, the flexible unpaid parental leave may be taken as:
- A single continuous period of one or more days; or
- Separate periods of one or more days each.
The provisions allowing an employee to extend their parental leave by 12 months after completing 12 months of unpaid parental leave remains unchanged.
Other recent changes to the Fair Work Act include new parental leave entitlements for parents of stillborn babies, those with children that die within the first 24 months of life and for parents of premature babies or those with birth-related complications.
To view further details from Fair Work Australia, click here
