Paid Maternity Leave
Question: Australia has to date not legislated for paid maternity leave, unlike most other countries. Assess who should take responsibility for paid maternity leave. Explain the reasons for your response.
Paid maternity leave is defined as income replacement to compensate for the leave from paid employment necessary around child-birth (Baird, 2002a:2). In the developed world today, many western countries have designed a legislated for paid maternity leave such as Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, New Zealand and more. Indeed only USA and Australia have to date not legislated for paid maternity leave across the workforce (O’Neill, 2004: E-Brief). This consequently placed the responsibility on three different groups in Australia including employers who value as the most significant role follow by the government and finally their family, which three groups should have the purpose of giving financial support and psycho-social health to pregnant women and their new infants.
Employers should be more crucial in taking the responsibility for paid maternity leave compare to any others. There is evidence that maternity pay is good for business (NWJC, 1999:11.9). On the other the hand, government should become another role in taking the responsibility for paid maternity leave. Indeed, Australia was amongst the first in the world to provide a maternity allowance which is a payable on the birth of a child. This could be a support to pregnant women, but the government should take further more responsibility for paid maternity leave for specific reasons. In addition, family members should play part of the responsibility for paid maternity leave, especially the husband. The Royal Women’s Hospital has conducted a research base on the source of income while women pregnant, indicating that husbands become the role of taking responsibility for paid maternity leave in a range of situations (Wendy, 2004).
Amongst three different groups, employers should weight the most for paid
Paid maternity leave is defined as income replacement to compensate for the leave from paid employment necessary around child-birth (Baird, 2002a:2). In the developed world today, many western countries have designed a legislated for paid maternity leave such as Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom, New Zealand and more. Indeed only USA and Australia have to date not legislated for paid maternity leave across the workforce (O’Neill, 2004: E-Brief). This consequently placed the responsibility on three different groups in Australia including employers who value as the most significant role follow by the government and finally their family, which three groups should have the purpose of giving financial support and psycho-social health to pregnant women and their new infants.
Employers should be more crucial in taking the responsibility for paid maternity leave compare to any others. There is evidence that maternity pay is good for business (NWJC, 1999:11.9). On the other the hand, government should become another role in taking the responsibility for paid maternity leave. Indeed, Australia was amongst the first in the world to provide a maternity allowance which is a payable on the birth of a child. This could be a support to pregnant women, but the government should take further more responsibility for paid maternity leave for specific reasons. In addition, family members should play part of the responsibility for paid maternity leave, especially the husband. The Royal Women’s Hospital has conducted a research base on the source of income while women pregnant, indicating that husbands become the role of taking responsibility for paid maternity leave in a range of situations (Wendy, 2004).
Amongst three different groups, employers should weight the most for paid