Is your school a Leader, Lagger or Passive with family-friendly conditions?

“Which schools value and encourage family-friendly conditions?”

This is a common question we get asked by members when they are looking at employment opportunities.

While there are several measures for how an employer can look after and promote family friendly conditions in this article we focus on Paid Parental Leave, Spouse/Partner leave, access to unpaid leave and leave for Family Special Events.

To classify how schools compare on these conditions, we have assigned the terms Leaders, Passives and Laggers.

Leaders

Employers that lead in this regard are not fearful of being such. They recognise the need to provide great conditions for parents and families. They see these conditions as great selling points to attract and retain staff.

Passives

Employers who are passive in this regard are often not wanting to take the lead and go for something that others are not yet doing. They look to what others are doing and appear to follow, sometimes reluctantly, when the see others have shifted. Often, they will match current conditions but not better them. Commonly, there is a 12-month qualifying period for new employees and a return to work for 12 months before qualifying for further payment (recharge). The employers may or may not pay superannuation on those paid leave weeks.

Laggers

Employers who are laggers are the last to move. Some are unwilling to move even to what the majority of employers are doing. In this area of family friendly conditions, they sometimes have an ideological view of parenting which we say inhibits their ability to move to better conditions.

They commonly have less weeks of pay, will restrict the payment to women, ‘birth mothers’ or permanent staff and are unlikely to have Family Special Events Leave.

Some employers may be leaders in one domain, but be passives or even laggers in another. The table below categorises the overall situation for these four areas:

Paid Parental Leave conditions
Spouse/partner Leave
Unpaid Leave
Family Special Events

Catholic and Lutheran systems have had their sector size taken into consideration.

Some employers are currently negotiating with members and so where an employer offer is ‘on the table’ we have included that offer and shown it with an asterix*.

While the schools listed are not strictly ranked, patterns will be detectable. Schools that have a greater revenue, and therefore ability, to pay for increased conditions such as these have been placed accordingly.

In our view, all-girls schools should be leaders in this area, but none are. Some are indeed openly resistive to such changes at negotiation.