Bill extends PPL for parents of stillborn children

A new law passed on 3 November protects workers’ employer-funded parental leave after stillbirth or early infant death, unless both parties agree otherwise.

Kylie Busk, IEU Victoria Tasmania Deputy General Secretary said, ‘The IEU has successfully negotiated provisions like these with many employers on behalf of members.

‘It is great to see a law that protects and provides certainty on those provisions.’

Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth said parents' pain ‘should not be compounded by uncertainty about whether or not they have to go back to work while they are recovering, not only from the immense grief and trauma, but from childbirth itself and the physical toll it takes on the body’.

The legislation was named Baby Priya’s Bill after a premature baby girl who died at six weeks of age. Her mother, who had been denied parental leave following the death, became an advocate for a law change, gathering more than 25,000 signatures in an online petition.

The government’s changes amend the Fair Work Act to clarify that an employer cannot cancel PPL when:
• a child is stillborn, and the worker would have been entitled to employer-funded PPL if the child had been born alive; or
• a child dies while the worker is on employer-funded PPL, or during a period of time the employee could have accessed employer-funded PPL.

Rishworth said parents ‘should have the certainty and time to grieve after loss of a child’.

ASU support

Angus McFarland, Secretary of the NSW/ACT branch of the Australian Services Union (ASU), said Baby Priya’s mother is a ‘valued member’ of that union and the new law will give parents ‘the compassion and support they deserve during a time of unimaginable grief’.

‘No parent mourning the loss of a child should be forced back to work early or face financial strain, and under this Bill they won’t have to.’