Altogether Group to introduce equal paid parental leave for primary and secondary carers

At Altogether, we’re set to introduce a plan to employees offering both primary and secondary carers in our workforce 14 weeks’ paid parental leave.

The policy will better the current national Paid Parental Leave Scheme, which allows primary carers 18 weeks’ leave, while secondary caregivers are entitled to take two weeks of leave at the national minimum wage, which is paid by the federal government.

Currently at Altogether, employees who are the primary carer and an eligible permanent or casual employee, are entitled to 12 weeks’ paid leave and up to 12 months’ unpaid leave.

From January 2023, secondary carers will be entitled to four week’s paid parental leave, increasing to six weeks in 2024, 10 weeks in 2025 and by 1 January 2026, all carer types will be entitled to 14 weeks of leave.

The move extends from the existing flexible parental leave policy which supports fathers to become the primary carer once their partner has completed their paid parental leave at their place of employment.

I am taking advantage of our existing policy and will take five months parental leave to support my wife’s return to work after the birth of our third son.

My wife was the primary carer for our first two children and her career was impacted by the time that she took off. With our third child, I've always had the view that it was my turn take on the role of primary carer – particularly when she's doing very well in her career and she had an opportunity to take on a major, high-profile project.

Because of the active encouragement of the Altogether management team and the policies that are in place, it was an easy decision to take five months off to look after my children and support my wife’s return to full-time work.

As primary carer, Altogether Group employees can take paid parental leave over one or multiple periods, with the option to alternate full or half pay to spread out leave and payments.

My colleague, Terry Leckie, founder and chief executive officer of Altogether Group, says that Altogether is supportive of flexible family arrangements.

“It’s important to us that everyone at Altogether can fully participate at work and have equal opportunities to further their career. As part of our approach to this, we have a hybrid culture of remote and office working, encourage our staff to work flexibly, make wellbeing a priority, and are on track to having equal paid parental leave for both parents.

“We recognise that it can be difficult to manage a healthy work-life balance and want to give all of our employees the opportunity to continue their career and more equally share the responsibility of parenting.

“Our culture helps us to attract, retain and support our high performing employees, which is essential to building a strong company and maintaining our competitive advantage,” Mr Leckie told me.

Our people and culture manager Jane Chapman let me know that the increase in men requesting the extended parental leave sets a positive expectation for future parents.

“Men are more likely to request extended parental leave and flexible work in workplaces where they feel supported by their employer and when they see others doing it. We want both parents to be able to spend quality time with their families in the first year of birth and not be financially penalised,” Ms Chapman said.

I am already seeing this positive impact on my team. One of my team members recently became a father for the first time. He is also choosing to take extended leave later this year and will become the primary carer so that his wife can run her business. This is a clear example of how change happens.

Darren Wharton is Altogether Group’s executive manager of sustainable utility services.