Paid Parental Leave

Fourteen weeks of job protected PPL is available to eligible parents. To be eligible for PPL, employees must have worked continuously with the same employer for an average of at least 10 hours a week (including at least one hour in every week or 40 hours in every month) in the six or 12 months immediately before the baby's expected due date or the date the employee has assumed the care of a child they intend to adopt.

Eligibility for PPL is primarily determined through the birth mother. However, if their spouse/partner (including same sex couples) fits the eligibility criteria the mother can transfer part or all of the leave to them. In the case of joint adoption, the spouse/ partner can be nominated as the primary caregiver.

Extended Leave

Employees who have worked continuously with the same employer for 12 months or more are also entitled to up to 52 weeks of employment protected unpaid parental leave, less any PPL taken. Unpaid leave must be taken continuously and can be shared between parents where they are both eligible. Both parents can take their leave at the same time or consecutively with each other.

The rationale underlying the eligibility criteria for both the paid and unpaid parental leave is that to qualify for the job protection that accompanies leave, an employee should have demonstrated workplace attachment with their employer. This helps to strike a balance between an employee's interest in job-protected leave and an employer's interest in maintaining qualified staff.

Partners/Paternity Leave

Unpaid leave of one week is available to spouse/partners with six months eligible service and two weeks of unpaid leave is available to spouse/partners with 12 months eligible service.

Special Leave

Up to ten days of unpaid leave is available to a mother before maternity leave for reasons connected with pregnancy, such as antenatal checks.

Self-Employed

With the introduction of PPL for the self-employed in July 2006, some self-employed parents also became eligible for PPL part way through the evaluation. Those involved in the evaluation, however, had given birth to or adopted their child before the eligibility criteria changed. For the self-employed to be eligible for parental leave payments, a birth mother/ adoptive parent has to establish that they had worked an average of at least 10 hours a week over the six or 12 months immediately before the expected date of delivery or adoption of a child.

Further information on parental leave entitlements and obligations is available from the Department of Labour at www.ers.dol.govt.nz or telephone 0800 20 90 20 during business hours.

Throughout this report paid leave or PPL is used to refer to the paid parental leave described above. Parental leave is used to encompass both the paid leave and extended unpaid leave described above.