Issue 3: Disrimination law vs IR rules

Case Study: The one size fits all policy

Hannah rang Pollock. Her permanent part-time employee had announced her pregnancy and having done the maths it was clear she only had 44 weeks continuous service. “So she doesn’t qualify for maternity leave; she’s 8 weeks short of 52, but the Sex Discrimination Act says I can’t terminate her due to pregnancy; what happens ? Are the IR rules superior? How do I talk about it without getting us into hot water? ”

“No maternity leave without 52 weeks service; we part ways with everyone else and just assume there are no other options. I have a similar issue with an employee who has returned from maternity leave pregnant, and her supervisor has refused her a second term of maternity leave as she hasn’t served the 52 weeks again. She’s upset, everyone has an opinion and he won’t budge from his interpretation of the policy. He’s wrong but he won’t have her back if she goes on leave again.” Pollock added.

“Where do we stand with long term casuals then ? And what about fathers that want to be primary carers when the mother only takes six weeks? I need to know everything - all the rules our staff policy doesn’t cover” Hannah complained “otherwise I am personally at risk of doing the wrong thing and I’ll be in trouble.”

“I know it’s complicated and to make matters worse people rely on here-say or reflect on what they did years ago, and then everyone has a view of what should happen. I’ll look at the things you raised Hannah, but I want you to chew over something for me. What do I do with a pregnant senior accountant who refuses to register for maternity leave, in principle I know she doesn’t want any record of what she calls a private matter on her work files, and won’t risk someone filling the job. We can see she’s pregnant, but she won’t say it and has applied for 6 weeks accrued annual leave and her pro-rata long service leave – which can be granted by mutual agreement. She can’t be lured by the 4 weeks paid maternity leave we offer. Plus doing it her way means she has a wage, the company car and super benefits, while away. Every time I try to have the conversation she asks why she is being harassed ?

As Hannah hung up the phone she reflected on her request to know everything and couldn’t help but think that while she needed all the information, employees would be better off without it. One set of guidelines – no choice - ‘black and white’ just as the CEO likes it. She then felt just a little guilty now knowing about the senior accountant – what about her privacy – and more to the point, deep down Hannah understand only too well why she was taking the stand she was!

Proceed to Section B - Issue 3: Things that could be going wrong
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