Click photo to enlarge
New parents Adam and Kim Sturge and 5-week-old son Billy at
their Mornington home. Photo by Jane Dawber.
The financial strain of a new baby in the household has
been significantly lessened for University of Otago staff.
The salary subsidy available to staff members - usually women
- taking parental leave has been doubled from six weeks to
12, while staff whose partners have babies are now entitled
to two weeks' paid leave.
For human resources department staff member Adam Sturge, the
new provisions for partners meant he continued to be paid
while spending two weeks at home with wife Kim after their
first child, Billy, was born five weeks ago.
"I had planned to take time off and use part of my annual
leave. This way I was able to be at home and save my holidays
for later."
Not surprisingly, he was all in favour of paid leave for
partners.
"It recognises the importance fathers play. It's a major
improvement."
The Government pays one birth or adoptive parent - usually
the mother - 14 weeks' paid parental leave on the arrival of
their baby, but the maximum payment is $429.74 a week.
The university's leave provisions mean a birth or the
adoptive parent will receive their usual salary for 12 weeks
if their salary is more than $429.74 a week, and the
government payment for another two weeks.
The provisions, which have been back-dated to apply to staff
whose babies arrived on or after April 27 this year, were the
best offered by any university in New Zealand, university
human resources manager Kevin Seales said yesterday.
Most other universities offered nine weeks.
With more than 10,000 people on its payroll, including about
3000 staff on permanent contracts, the university is
Dunedin's largest employer and the second-largest in the
South Island behind the Canterbury District Health Board.
During the past three years, an average of 54 staff members
had received parental leave payments annually, Mr Seales
said.
Because paid leave provisions for partners had not been
available before, it was "very difficult to predict" how many
staff might use that scheme annually, he said.
The revised parental leave provisions were settled following
extensive consultation and comparisons with universities in
New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
As well as the major changes, they also remove previous age
limits for staff adopting children, provide more support for
staff paid from research grants, and allow compensation for
small amounts of work done by staff while on parental leave.
allison.rudd@odt.co.nz
