BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE & KAMALA EMANUEL
HOBART — Tasmania's Labor premier Jim Bacon has rejected calls for state public servants to have access to three months' paid maternity leave. The calls came after state education minister Paula Wriedt's own three months of paid maternity leave finished on June 5.
There are currently no provisions for public service workers to take paid maternity leave, although workers on state awards may take up to 12 months' unpaid maternity leave. Many women use sick leave when they have their babies.
By contrast, there are no provisions in the legislation governing politicians' entitlements, putting no prescribed limit on the amount of leave they may take.
Tasmanian Trades and Labor Council secretary Lynne Fitzgerald told the Mercury newspaper, "If the government suggests that it's right and proper for the minister to have paid leave, the principle should apply across the board".
Unions are trying to find out how often sick leave, annual leave and long-service leave are being used in place of maternity leave so as to better argue their case to the government. Fitzgerald told Green Left Weekly that it may be the case that granting paid maternity leave won't cost the government any more than it pays in other forms of leave.
Opposition education spokesperson Ray Groom argued a similar line but did not actually call for conditions of employment for state workers to be changed.
State Public Services Federation of Tasmania state councillor Karen Stokes was surprised and disappointed at the state government's failure to make specific provisions for paid maternity leave. Stokes, who is also the rank-and-file Members First group candidate for state president in current union elections, referred to an OECD study that showed that women who take time out from work to have children remain financially disadvantaged for the rest of their lives. To counter this, she proposed paid maternity leave with the retention of seniority.
"Having children isn't just a personal choice, something women should be punished for", she told Green Left Weekly. "All the talk about family values is just meaningless twaddle if having and looking after children isn't really valued."
Bacon rejected the idea that politicians should be bound by the same conditions of employment as public sector workers. Workers can be comforted, however, by the fact that he "philosophically" supports paid maternity leave.