Paid Parental Leave and school holiday leave

Thought I had it all figured out. Due in November, add another two weeks onto 'due' date just in case, work out three months before then, early September woud be the earliest I can finish work. Have some annual leave up my sleeve that I'll take and voila, I can work until late August, have done my 10 out of 13 months employment, made up the 'hours', and happy days for me and PPL.

Until I got confused... it doesn't say 10 months EMPLOYMENT, it says 10 months WORK.

But it also says that work counts as paid leave before the birth, but not unpaid leave (this is where I thought I'd had it figured out beause all my leave is paid).
And then it says something about 8 weeks between 'work'... is that in the 10 month period while you are 'working' or in the whole 13 months? So taking into account I could go to 42 weeks, the latest I could finish is 36 weeks to account for the 8 weeks between 'work' days. Assuming the birth is considerd to be when the period ends?

Also, I work a 5 day fortnight as a teaching assistant. We aren't ABLE to work during school holidays, we have to take leave, because we don't operate on school holidays. Therefore by my due date I will have had 10 weeks leave in the past 12 months (4 weeks annual leave over Summer, 2 weeks in April, 2 weeks coming up in June, and another 2 weeks for September holidays). Add in the two weeks sick leave I just took, and I'll have already had 12 weeks off. That's my 3 months gone already?

Does this mean to be eligible for PPL I'd technically have to work until the day my baby is born?? Am I just ineligible already? My boss has already said that unofficially she can't see me being able to keep up with the workload and requirements (I work a 7.5 hour day in a Kindergarten, no official lunch break until 7 hours into the shift because that's just the way it is, and involves awkward lifting and a LOT of time on my feet moving and cleaning, running after 22 four year olds, getting lunches ready, beds out and in etc, not to mention exposed to sick kids constantly), and that I shoud seriously think about taking leave at the earliest possible time. I thought I had figured it out already to stay eligible for PPL, but it seems I may already be ineligible, through no fault of my own?!


This is so confusing... does C/L have a PPL hotline? I don't fancy sitting on hold for an hour in some general enquiries queue waiting to talk to someone random who may or may not be able to answer my question anyway... Might have to request a callback, although that failed the last few times because of a backlog, and they requested I submit another callback because too much time had lapsed between my enquiry date and when they received it. :-s

There was a thread trying to work a similar situation in the last couple of days. will see if i can find it

don't know if this helps but here you go

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...on-181100.html

LOL doesn't really help, that's what prompted my question, but thanks :) I had a brain flash and have just contacted my HR department, hopefully they can help me! Surely it can't be considered not work, it's not like I have a choice not to work. Although I'd probably choose not to ;) that's not the point haha

Will come back to this later

HR informed me that annual and recess leave IS considered paid work. I just have to be careful regarding the 8 weeks between dates - just in case I go overdue. I was planning on having my leave start beginning of term 4, at 32 weeks, for continuity, but if I go over, that leaves me with more than 8 weeks since I worked. Might take a bit of fancy planning to work this out. Since I have already worked the hours, maybe I can just go in for an hour or two and take the rest of the day in sick leave? lol

I just applied yesterday -
I think the below should apply to you - this is off the parental leave claim form that I completed online:

worked for at least 10 of the 13 months prior to the birth or adoption of your child, and
worked for at least 330 hours in that 10 month period (just over one day a week) with no more than an eight week gap between two consecutive working days.

It seemed a pretty low work requirement in my opinion - but regardless, it would incorporate any leave you had for holidays I would hope? I went to Centrelink yesterday for the first time ever. OMG what a waste of time that was.

It also says something on the claim form about going overdue - they don't penalise you for being overdue. Go online and have a look at the claim form as I remember seeing something about that too.

Paid leave is counted as work.


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Your EDD can be used. If you go over and there is a doubt to eligibility you can get a letter from doc about due date. As long as work up to 8 weeks before edd.

Did you realise if you aren't fit for work, your doctor can give you a letter of clearance stating so and therefore you still should be able to get the PPL?

I'll technically be 'fit' I'm sure, but I've basically been told that it would be in the 'too hard' basket to adjust duties etc.

Worked it all out with HR this arvo and feeling a lot better. Basically I'll be 'working' up until 33 weeks, up to the first day of term 4, and my paid recess leave during the school holidays will count as work, and I can use up my accumulated annual leave in the weeks before holidays. Approval from HR to finish in the last week of August. :leap: