Conditions

Bank boss urges rethink on maternity leave

Westpac's head of HR, Ann Sherry, has called on employer associations to abandon views that paid maternity leave is "too expensive or unrealistic" and help their members to implement the measure, in a speech to mark International Women's Day.

A negative attitude towards paid maternity leave by employers and their associations "reflects backward thinking and nostalgia for past realities", she said.

Sherry, who is also chief executive of Westpac subsidiary Bank of Melbourne said she found it extraordinary that some private sector employers haven't begun to offer paid maternity leave.

Westpac had demonstrated, she said, that the business costs of attrition and rehiring far outweighed the cost of maternity benefits.

But even more importantly, by providing paid maternity leave employers were respecting workers' work/life needs and building a long-term relationship with them.

Westpac provides six weeks paid maternity leave and allows men to use a week's sick leave to care for their child immediately after the birth.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward said today that she would release her discussion paper on paid maternity leave within three to four weeks.

Goward told a union forum last year that implementing paid maternity leave was at the top of her agenda and that the "interim report" would canvass options for the implementation of an "equitable and workable" paid maternity leave scheme.

The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency has delayed the release of its maternity leave statistics to coincide with the launch of the HREOC report.

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/campaigns/women/20020312_66.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005