Paid maternity leave, what about the "other mother?"

[Raupe]

All very confusing... But I heard that you could take out 'carer's leave' (I think). I heard someone at work talk about it... Might that be an option?

[nickle730]

Raupe, 'carer's leave' at my work (other's might be different?) is used when the employee is required to care for a member of their immediate family who is ill ie. children. The leave is paid/deducted from sick leave entitlements and is separate from parental leave.

[briggsy's girl]

a lot of people will have accrued six leave and will take carers (sick) leave if their partner has to have a c/s to extend their leave entitlements while still receiving payments.

there are soooo many terms out there. for permanent employees, there is a government legislation (i believe) that allows for either parent to have up to 52 weeks of parental leave and still have their job available at the end of it. it is generally unpaid, and it is set up so that only one person can claim this status at a time. in the case where the birth mother decides to return to work early (six months post partum for instance) the other parent has the optino of taking unpaid leave for the balance of the first 12 months of the baby's life, and the employer is obligated to keep their position open for them after that period of time. there is no guarantee for employment for casual employees though

the whole system is complicated - my suggestion to anyone who's partner is ttc or pregnant is to find out in advance what your entitlements through your employer are - and if it turns out that you're not entitled to any time off under your agreement, but you can acrue leave, try and save up your rec leave to take!