Parental provisions doubled

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 [2]