Fed: Uni staff set new standard on maternity leave

AAP General News (Australia)
12-27-2001
Fed: Uni staff set new standard on maternity leave

SYDNEY, Dec 27 AAP - A group of university staff has won an agreement that sets a new
standard for paid maternity leave in Australia.

The agreement for 13 weeks of maternity leave on full pay for some female staff at
Wollongong University in NSW supersedes the previous best deal for working mums set earlier
this year.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported today the deal at Wollongong University covers only
those women working for the university's students' representative council.

The deal, for women with two years' service, gives female staff 13 weeks of full pay
and then 60 per cent for the remaining 39 weeks of their year off, the newspaper said.

The Community and Public Sector Union told the newspaper while the leave was only available
to a small number of staff, it had four similar agreements in the pipeline.

The deal comes as the nation's peak union body, the ACTU, is set to launch a test case
in the new year to improve benefits for working mothers.

The ACTU plans to seek a case in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission granting
women 14 weeks' paid leave with the birth of each child.

The minimum entitlement for maternity leave in Australia is a year off, unpaid.

The Australian Catholic University set a benchmark on paid maternity leave in August,
when it granted new mums with two years' service the right to 12 weeks on full pay and
then 40 weeks on 60 per cent.

AAP nd/apm

KEYWORD: MATERNITY

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