Parental Leave, Personal/Carers Leave, Reproductive Health and Wellbeing Leave, and Compassionate Leave

Application

This Policy applies to all departments and public sector bodies of the State of Victoria and their non-executive level employees, as defined under the Public Administration Act 2004 (Vic) (PA Act) and other Victorian legislation.

Overview

The Government is committed to:

promoting and implementing flexible, diverse and supportive workplaces that ensure employees can balance their work and family responsibilities,
ensuring that public sector employers have appropriate arrangements in place to allow employees to take time off to help them deal with personal illness, injury, caring responsibilities, and family emergencies,
ensuring public sector employers implement workplace practices that enable employees to balance their work and family responsibilities regardless of their personal or family circumstances
eliminating the gender pay gap and improving the financial security of women while they work and when they retire
supporting employees who experience pregnancy loss
supporting employees who experience reproductive health and wellbeing issues.

Achieving the right balance between family commitments and the needs of business can be achieved through cooperation between the Government, employers, unions and employees. To support this commitment the Victorian Government expects all public sector employers to embed a range of supportive workplace practices for employees new and expectant parents. These include:

making paid parental leave available regardless of gender,
up to five days paid pre-natal or up to two days pre-adoption leave,
six weeks paid leave for an employee who is the Surrogate, and enters into a formal surrogacy arrangement, which complies with Part 4 of the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (Vic)
the continuation of employer superannuation contributions in respect of a period of paid parental leave.

Public sector must also include provisions regarding personal/carers leave and compassionate leave that comply with the requirements outlined in this policy.

Public sector agencies are required to include clauses for all topics where model provisions are provided and are encouraged to use the model clauses set out in Attachments A - D of this policy (subject to any workforce-specific amendments negotiated during enterprise bargaining). Minimum standards established by this policy will flow through to employers and employees when enterprise agreements are next negotiated.

Public sector employers and employees may negotiate additional provisions under the Government’s Wages Policy and Enterprise Bargaining Framework, including enhancements to the minimum expectations set out in this policy, as well as the inclusion of other provisions relating to reproductive health and wellbeing matters, pregnancy loss leave, surrogacy leave, menstruation and menopause leave and associated flexibilities, and other gender equity enhancements.

Parental Leave

Strong parental leave entitlements play a major role in supporting women’s economic opportunity, career progression, increased participation in the workforce and greater financial wellbeing for women. The availability of paid parental leave for each parent fosters a more equal division of unpaid care and paid work which results in a better family-work-life balance.

Public Sector employers must include in their enterprise agreements parental leave provisions that:

comply with the minimum parental leave provisions in the National Employment Standards (NES) in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act)
include a minimum eight weeks paid parental leave
include pre-natal leave for an employee who is pregnant, and pre-natal leave for an employee’s whose spouse (or de factor partner) is pregnant
include pre-adoption leave
remove qualifying periods for public sector employees to be eligible for paid parental leave
provide for paid and unpaid parental leave of up to 52 weeks to count as service for the purposes of long service leave (when taken within the first 104 weeks after the birth or adoption of a child)
outline what employees on parental leave will be paid during the paid parental leave component (including superannuation)
provide for leave to be taken flexibly, including at half pay
provide that an employee whose child is born by surrogate is eligible to access paid parental leave
provide paid lactation breaks when employees return to work
do not reduce or trade off existing paid parental leave entitlements which are in excess of the minimums provided in this policy.

To support public sector employers to meet these expectations a model clause is provided below at Attachment A. While not mandatory, employers are encouraged to use this model clause. In the absence of using the model clause, public sector employers are responsible for ensuring their clauses reflect the minimum expectations outlined in this Policy.

The Government recognises that unpaid absences to have and care for children as well as the uneven share of unpaid caring work can contribute to gender pay inequity in the public sector. In addition to the mandatory requirements noted above, employers may wish to include some or all of the following:

removal or reduction of restrictions on how and when parental leave is taken, to allow parents to take leave in a manner which better suits their personal circumstances, for example, in multiple periods
initiatives which seek to minimise the impact of absences on parental leave of up 52 weeks on performance-based pay advancements or progression
additional secondary caregiver leave that may be made available to a parent who takes on the role of primary caregiver following the primary carers return to work.

Employer-funded paid parental leave

The Government supports departments and agencies to negotiate and include in enterprise agreements paid parental leave provisions. For this reason, the model parental leave clause includes a minimum of eight weeks of paid parental leave that must be provided in all enterprise agreements.

During enterprise bargaining, public sector employers must not reduce or trade off existing paid parental leave entitlements of employees upon the expiration of a current agreement.

Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay Scheme

The Commonwealth Government Parental Leave Pay scheme provides government-funded Parental Leave Pay at the National Minimum Wage to employees who meet the eligibility criteria. For more information about government-funded paid parental leave visit Services Australia: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/parental-leave-pay.

Employer-funded paid parental leave does not affect an employee’s eligibility for the Commonwealth scheme. Employees can access both. Employers must not use the Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay scheme to offset the cost of the existing enterprise agreement entitlements.

Preservation of Parental Leave

The Victorian Government expects that employer-funded paid parental leave will be preserved for the employee if their child is stillborn or dies, unless otherwise agreed with the employee. Where an employee would otherwise have been entitled to paid parental leave under their enterprise agreement, if the child had not been stillborn or died, public sector employees remain entitled to take this leave, unless otherwise agreed between the employee and employer. An entitlement to unpaid parental leave must also be preserved in these circumstances, consistent with the FW Act.

Payment of Superannuation Contributions during periods of parental leave

To help address the gendered gap in retirement incomes, all public sector employers must include provisions for the payment of superannuation during periods of parental leave in their enterprise agreements. The provisions must provide for all Victorian public sector employees to have superannuation contributions made in respect of their period of paid parental leave. The employer will pay superannuation contributions according to the ordinary pay cycle during periods of paid parental leave.

A model clause is set out below in Attachment B. While not mandatory, employers are encouraged to use this model clause. In the absence of using the model clause, public sector employers are responsible for ensuring their clauses reflect the minimum expectations outlined in this Policy. Employers and employees may negotiate enhanced superannuation provisions, including the payment of superannuation during periods of unpaid parental leave.

Employees who receive the Commonwealth Parental Leave Pay from 1 July 2025, will be eligible to be Paid Parental Leave Superannuation Contribution (PPLSC), which is paid by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). For more information about PPLSC visit the ATO website.

Employers must continue to comply with their superannuation obligations under their relevant industrial instrument during the period for which the employee is also in receipt of the PPLSC.

Personal/Carers Leave

Public Sector employers must include in their enterprise agreements personal/carer’s leave provisions that:

comply with the minimum personal/carers leave provisions in the NES, and,
includes access to personal carers leave for Assistance Animals (see below), and
allows employees access to accrued personal leave entitlements for the purpose of dealing with Reproductive Health and Wellbeing issues, including (but not limited to) dealing with symptoms associated with menstruation and menopause (see below).

Assistance Animals

To support employees who require an Assistance Animal to participate in the workplace, public sector employers should expand the operation of the personal/carers leave provisions to allow employees with a disability to access leave if their assistance animal is ill or injured.

Access to leave under these provisions should be limited to an Assistance Animal that is a trained animal that helps an employee to ease or manage the effects of a disability or condition in the workplace, for example a guide dog. Not all animals are assistance animals, even if they assist an employee in some way. Companion, therapy, and facility animals should not be considered Assistance Animals for the purposes of these provisions.

To support public sector employers to meet these expectations a model clause is provided below at Attachment C. While not mandatory, employers are encouraged to use this model clause. In the absence of using the model clause, public sector employers are responsible for ensuring their clauses reflect the minimum expectations outlined in this Policy.

Reproductive Health and Wellbeing

Public sector employers must include in their enterprise agreements appropriate supports and access to existing accrued entitlements for employees dealing with reproductive health and wellbeing issues.

At a minimum, it is expected that Victorian Public Sector enterprise agreements include entitlements which provide for:

an option of working from home, subject to operational requirements and/or occupational health and safety requirements, where an employee is experiencing symptoms associated with reproductive health issues.
‘in the workplace’ supports which prioritise the comfort and wellbeing of the employee including, but not limited to, resting in a quiet area or limited face to face contact, subject to operational requirements and/or occupational health and safety requirements.
the ability to access accrued personal leave for the purpose of dealing with the symptoms of reproductive health issues, including (but not limited to) dealing with symptoms associated with menstruation and menopause.

Employers and employees may also wish to agree standalone paid leave entitlements through enterprise bargaining agreements, subject to complying with Wages Policy and the Enterprise Bargaining Framework. Clause 58 of the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024 provides an example of where reproductive health and wellbeing leave and supports have been introduced via an enterprise agreement. It is not mandatory to utilise this clause, however, public sector employers may find it useful when introducing reproductive health and wellbeing provisions into their own enterprise agreements.

Compassionate Leave

Public sector employers must ensure they have appropriate arrangements in place to support employees required to absent themselves from the workplace where:

a member of their immediate family or household contracts or develops a life-threatening illness, or injury or dies; or
their child is stillborn, where the child would have been a member of the employee’s immediate family or a member of the employee’s household, if the child had been born alive; or
the employee or the employee’s spouse or de facto partner, has a miscarriage.

Public Sector employers must include in their enterprise agreements compassionate leave provisions that:

comply with the minimum compassionate leave provisions in the NES; and
provide discretion for employers to grant compassionate leave even if the person who has died or contracted a life-threatening illness or injury does not strictly meet the definition of immediate family or household in the FW Act but is otherwise holds a significant family or personal connection.

To support public sector employers to meet these expectations a model clause is provided below at Attachment D. While not mandatory, employers are encouraged to use this model clause. In the absence of using the model clause, public sector employers are responsible for ensuring their clauses reflect the minimum expectations outlined in this Policy.

Further Information

For further information and advice employees and public sector union representatives should contact the local Human Resources or People and Culture Unit (or equivalent) of the relevant entity for further assistance in the first instance.

People and Culture Representatives of Public Sector Entities should contact their Portfolio Department for further assistance in the first instance.

People and Culture Representatives of Portfolio Departments should contact their usual Industrial Relations Victoria portfolio contact for further assistance in the first instance.