Page 2122 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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The new provision seeks to provide equity across the public service. There are a number of female employees in situations where they must reduce their hours of work due to the physical nature of their duties or pregnancy-related medical conditions. Under the previous directorate-based agreements, an employee who worked full time before they became pregnant and during the first six months of their pregnancy who then reduced their hours to a 2½-day working week in the period leading up to their maternity leave would only be entitled to 18 weeks maternity leave paid at 50 per cent of their full-time rate. Under new provisions, this same employee would have their hours worked in the previous 12 months averaged out, resulting in the employee being entitled to 18 weeks maternity leave paid at 75 per cent of their full-time rate.
All in all, as members can see, there is a strong package of measures to support pregnant women in the workplace and to tackle discrimination against those women. But there is still, of course, more work to be done. We recognise that the complaints still get recorded, that they are likely to only be the tip of the iceberg and that many women may choose not to report pregnancy discrimination. The government, though, has a multilayered response to these concerns and continues to do its utmost as an employer of choice in relation to the way it supports pregnant women in the workplace. The territory government is continually moving forward to address discrimination in all forms and in all sectors, and I am pleased that Mrs Jones has brought this matter to the Assembly for discussion today.
Madam Deputy Speaker, considering the matters I have raised in my speech and the response to the matters raised in Mrs Jones’s motion, I have circulated amendments which reflect those comments, and I now seek leave to move the amendments circulated in my name together:
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: I move:
(1) Omit paragraph 1(b).
(2) Omit paragraph (2), substitute:
“(2) notes that:
(a) the ACT Human Rights Commissioner collates the statistics on pregnancy discrimination complaints made to it;
(b) the ACT Human Rights Commissioner reports on the number of cases of pregnancy discrimination in their Annual Report, as do other bodies that address pregnancy discrimination, including Fair Work Australia and the Australian Human Rights Commission;
(c) it has been unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground of pregnancy or status as a parent or carer under the ACT Discrimination Act since 1991; and
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