Maternity leave rights if on contract??

Hello I was hoping you could all help me out.
I am employed by the victorian health service on a contract basis (there is no other option for doctors)- I am currently on a 2 year contract (but have worked in my current hospital for a few years).
My contract states I am entitled to 6 weeks paid and 46 weeks unpaid maternity leave and that my employer must provide me with a part time job when I return.

My current contract started Jan 07 and is for 2 years. I am going on maternity leave in December 07 and planning on taking my full 12 months entitlement. My employer states that when I return they will only be obligated to employ me on a part time basis until my existing contract was due to expire (ie Jan 09 - just a few weeks of part time employment). ie - my contract will expire 2 years from the date it started.
This sounded fair enough until I found out that if I wanted to take the year off for other reasons (eg to travel the world) then I would still be entitled to work the full year that I took off when I came back (ie my contract then becomes a 2 years of worked time not a date based contract (ie I could work the 2 years over a 3 year period).
This doesnt seem fair to me. Does anybody know what my maternity rights are if I am on contracted employment? Or who I would call to find out (I can easily find the numbers to call in NSW but the victorian help numbers seem a little more tricky to find).
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

Hi rtdcap

It does seem a little strange.

Who is telling you this? maybe you should go one step further up the ladder or get a friend to ask at another HR department.

Maybe you could turn it around and ask if seeings as your contract is still running while you are on maternity leave will you still be accruing leave entitlements like holidays and sick leave etc- this may make them reassess their position.

I don't know for sure but I have a couple of cousins that are Drs in Victoria and from what they tell me it isn't like they are going to turn around and not offer you a contract on whatever terms you want when your current one expires but I know that that doesn't really solve the problem at hand.

Surely there is a union or similar that would know exactly what standard practice is - or maybe an employment advocate at the AMA?

Hope that you are able to sort it out.

If you call the Law Institute of Victoria (9607 9311) they can refer you to a solicitor in workplace relations who will spend up to half an hour for free reviewing your case. Otherwise "JobWatch" might be able to help you, but their website is currently under construction so check the white pages....

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately I work in one of the few oversupplied areas in the health system which means that I won't just be able to set out the terms for any job I want. The information is coming from the head of my department.
The only union is the AMA - unfortunately it would cost me several hundred dollars to join them to ask the question....

I'd check with your H/R department as sometimes management don't have a clue what they are talking about.