Page tree

You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 24 Next »


 

 

Close

How satisfied are you with our online help?*

Just these help pages, not phone support or the product itself

0
1
2
3
4
5
Very dissatisfied
Very satisfied

Why did you give this rating?

Anything else you want to tell us about the help?

 

 

 

 

In this section

Ace Payroll and parental leave

What is parental leave?

Who is eligible for parental leave?

Legislation

When can leave be taken?

Special leave

Parental leave report

Applications for leave

Employer's response

Keeping the employee’s position open for them

Employing a temporary replacement

Employee returning to work

Holiday pay before parental leave

Holiday pay during and after parental leave

Employee records and parental leave

More information

 

Ace Payroll and parental leave

When an employee goes on parental leave you do not need to do anything in Ace Payroll. Simply stop processing payment to that employee until they return.

If you want to, you can make a note of their parental leave in the Notes tab in Modify Employee Details.

What is parental leave?

Parental leave is time off work available by law to new parents to give them the opportunity to care for their newborn baby or adopted child under 6 years old.

There is a government funded payment available to parents.

Employers do not pay for parental leave, but are required to provide time off to eligible employees.

Who is eligible for parental leave?

You are required to provide unpaid time off work for an employee who is becoming the primary carer of a child under 6 years old.

The amount of leave an employee is entitled to depends on how long they have worked for you.

An employee is entitled to a maximum of 26 weeks of leave (18 weeks primary carer leave and a further 8 weeks of extended leave) if they have worked for you for:

  • at least 6 months immediately preceding the birth or assumption of responsibility for the child, and

  • an average of 10 hours per week for those 6 months.

An employee is entitled to a maximum of 52 weeks of leave (18 weeks primary carer leave and a further 34 weeks of extended leave) if they have worked for you for:

  • at least 12 months immediately preceding the birth or assumption of responsibility for the child, and

  • an average of 10 hours per week for those 12 months.

Legislation

Parental leave legislation is set out in the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987.

The act, including amendments, can be found on the New Zealand Legislation website.

When can the leave be taken?

Leave may start up to 6 weeks before the expected delivery date of child, or the date on which the employee intends to become the primary carer of the child.

Special leave

Prior to taking leave a pregnant employee is also entitled to take up to 10 days of special leave without pay for pregnancy related reasons. This special leave must not be deducted from the employee’s entitlement to primary carer leave.

Parental leave report 

Your employee will need to apply for paid parental leave with Inland Revenue. You will need to supply your employee with a Parental leave report so that they can fill in the relevant Inland Revenue forms.

 

To access the parental leave report
  1. From anywhere in the program press F4, then scroll down to the Reports on employees section and click Parental leave IR880.

  2. Select the correct employee and click the green tick.

  3. Click Parental Leave Commencement Date and enter the correct date. Check that the rest of the information is correct.

  4. If your employee was off on ACC or on leave without pay, reduce the number of weeks to reflect that.
    T
    he number of weeks covered in the report should not include periods in which the employee was not paid.

  5. Click Print.

Applications for leave

Employees must apply for parental leave by giving written notice to their employer of their intention to take leave.

If the leave is to be taken for a baby being born to the employee or their partner, the employee must make their request at least 3 months before the expected delivery date.

If the leave is being taken for a child coming into the primary custody of the employee but not being born to the employee or their partner, the employee must make their request at least 14 days in advance of the child coming into their care.

The employee’s full obligations are set out in section 31 of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987.

Employer's response

You must respond to a request within 21 days of receiving it. The response must be in writing and must approve or reject the request, and notify the employee whether their position can be kept open.

A request for parental leave cannot be denied if the employee is entitled to that leave. If the employee’s request for leave is rejected, you must state the reason why the employee is not entitled to take leave.

If the employee’s position cannot be kept open, then you must inform the employee that they can dispute that decision, and also that the you will give them preference for similar jobs for 26 weeks after the end of their parental leave.

Your full obligations are set out in section 36 of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987.

Keeping the employee’s position open for them

For the first 4 weeks of parental leave you must keep the employee’s position open for them to return to, unless you can prove that the position was necessarily made redundant.

After the first 4 weeks of leave the employee’s position must be kept open for them except in the case of redundancy, or because the nature of the positions makes hiring a temporary replacement not reasonably possible.

Be careful when deciding whether or not it is possible to keep a position open. You must consider the size of the business, and the training period or skills required to do the job. If you decide that the position cannot be kept open, or must be made redundant, the employee can challenge your decision through the Employment Relations Authority, and you may face legal action.

Employing a temporary replacement

When you hire a temporary employee to replace an employee who is on parental leave, you have an obligation to inform them of their status as temporary.

Before employing them you must inform them in writing that:

  • they are being employed on a temporary basis in place of an employee on parental leave, and

  • the employee on leave may return before the end of their parental leave.

Employee returning to work

Every employee must inform you of whether or not they intend to return to work by giving you notice no later than 21 days before their parental leave ends.

If an employee intends to return to work before their leave ends, they must inform you in writing 21 days before they intend to come back.

Holiday pay before parental leave

If a staff member asks to take their accrued annual leave before taking parental leave, pay them for their leave as a current employee.

Do not pay this holiday pay as a termination payment. If an employee makes a claim against you later for unjustified dismissal, having paid them as if they were being terminated can be used as evidence of wrongdoing on your part.

Holiday pay during and after parental leave

Employees who are on parental leave are entitled to accrue annual leave during that time.

If an employee becomes entitled to annual leave on pay during:

 a. a period of parental leave, or
b. a period of preference in obtaining employment, or
b. the 12 months immediately following their return to work

then the employee is only entitled to be paid for that holiday based on their average weekly earnings (calculated using their weekly pay for the previous 12 months).

This is because section 42(2) of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 overrides section 21 of the Holidays Act 2003.

In an extreme example, if an employee took 52 weeks of parental leave then they would be immediately entitled to 4 weeks of paid annual leave when they returned to work. Because they had been on leave without pay from their employer, their average weekly earnings for the 12 month period would be zero. They would therefore be entitled to four weeks of annual leave without pay.

Employee records and parental leave

When the employee goes on parental leave, do not enter a finishing date on the employee record. If a finishing date is entered, it will be shown on the next schedule sent to Inland Revenue.

If an employee makes a claim against you later for unjustified dismissal, a schedule sent to Inland Revenue that showed a finishing date can be used as evidence of wrongdoing on your part.

 

More information

Employment New Zealand - Parental leave

Inland Revenue - Paid parental leave

business.gov.nz - Parental leave