Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill introduced

The Paid Parental Leave Amendment Bill 2014 has been introduced in the House of Reps. It proposes to ease administrative burdens on business by amending the paid parental leave legislation to remove the requirement for employers to provide government-funded parental leave pay to their eligible long-term employees.

From 1 July 2014, employees will be paid directly by the Department of Human Services, unless an employer opts in to provide parental leave pay to its employees and an employee agrees for their employer to pay them. These amendments were originally contained in the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 (which is still before Parliament) but were removed by the government.