Maternity leave legislation covers many areas, including:

• Entitlements based on your employee’s role and how long they have been working for you
• Unsafe work during pregnancy
• Sick leave and unpaid leave for pregnancy-related medical appointments or conditions
• Fitness for work
• Unpaid maternity leave
• Extension of unpaid maternity leave
• Returning to work plans
• Breastfeeding support
• Flexible work hours and arrangements

It’s a lot to consider. Especially if you’ve already got your hands full managing other parts of your business.

Our job is to take some of the pressure off you by giving you all the relevant information and tools you need to get maternity leave right.

We can help you:

1. Understand exactly what the law says you need to do
2. Communicate effectively with your employee
3. Help you prepare for your employee’s maternity leave and return to the workplace

Working out maternity and parental leave entitlements can be complicated and confusing. If you get it wrong, you risk your business getting a large fine from Fair Work.

Confusion about maternity leave entitlements can also cause stress and conflict between you and your employee – which is the last thing you want at this time.

Some of the common maternity leave mistakes employers make include:

• Not knowing the full range of maternity (and parental) related entitlements
• Not being up to date with changes to parental leave legislation
• Unintentionally discriminating against an employee

If you are not sure what to do, the best course of action is to get advice from a professional.

HR on Call is here to help. We work with small and medium-sized businesses that need simple, practical solutions and support.

Get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat.