The issue of maternity leave for working women in Australia has cropped up again after a proposal was raised to issue a 14-week paid maternity leave for mothers.

This new scheme, once implemented, will benefit more than 300,000 women currently making up the total workforce in Australia.

As paid maternity leave is not regulated in Australia, the decision to award the leave - the length of leave, and whether it’s paid leave or not - is at the discretion of the employer. While a number of employers have been generous by giving long paid leaves, many others on the other hand have clearly indicated their unwillingness to pay the mothers. As a result, many of the women who give birth come back to work before their babies are 3 months old.

More accurately, 1 in every 6 women with new-born baby resumes work before their baby’s age reaches 3 month.  Even more shocking, in the same survey published in the Australian government report, it is indicated that 8% of the mothers return to their office within the first month of confinement.

The report went on to conclude that women are forced to come back for duty due to ineligibility for paid maternity leave, and concern over their financial undertaking.

Many groups in the country have called the government to propose a new maternity leave structure to extend appreciation to the working class mothers and give more time for them to be close to their babies. While 14 weeks of paid maternity leave seems sensible for a few quarters, a number of prominent groups and labour organizations want more - between 6 months up to 1 year.

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