10 April 2012

Media Release

Extended Paid Parental Leave Good for Families, Good for Businesses

‘We’re very pleased to see the issue of extended paid parental leave back up for political debate,” National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) President Elizabeth Bang said today.

Elizabeth Bang was commenting on Sue Moroney’s Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months Paid Leave) Amendment Bill which was drawn in the parliamentary ballot last week.

“NCWNZ believes the Bill, which seeks to incrementally increase the allocation of paid parental leave from 14 to 26 weeks, is on the right track but ultimately needs to go further. We agree with other agencies such as the Families Commission that the period for paid parental leave should be extended to 52 weeks,” Elizabeth Bang said.

“Significantly extending paid parental leave would give working parents more flexibility in the first important months of their child’s life. In order to make the best decisions for themselves, families require access to paid parental leave provisions that provide a real choice about who will be the main caregiver and when they return to work.”

Elizabeth Bang said that it is also important to understand that there are benefits to employers as well, which may not be obvious at first glance.

“Last year the Australian Government reported that leading businesses know the value to their bottom-line of an important retention strategy such as paid parental leave and they regard it as central to a suite of flexible workplace practices.

“The benefits for businesses of paid parental leave are many. They include more employees returning to work; reduced recruitment and training costs; better staff morale and productivity; and a cost effective means of retaining skilled staff and improved organisational efficiency through long service - for example institutional knowledge, industry knowledge, networks and contacts.

“Extending paid parental leave in New Zealand is good for parents and good for Kiwi businesses. It’s a win-win situation. The sooner the Government and the New Zealand business sector in particular start focusing on the positives, the sooner we’ll start to realise the benefits for everyone,” concluded Elizabeth Bang.

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