Community post

For my Aussie mummas in this group, I'm hoping you can all shed some light on the maternity leave situation, i'm either getting conflicting information or I'm just really really confused. . .

I've read that you can be paid leave from the government AND your employer but i can't seem to find much more info on how to be paid both?!

From what i understand, maternity leave pay is paid at the national minimum wage for 18 weeks which is something like $635 after tax..

Has anyone been paid both payments before? Is your employer obligated to pay you or is it your responsibility to seek the payment from the government?

As you can see.. i need all the help i can get..

cant receive both, you need to work out which payment is the higher one and apply for that one. employer or centrelink.

Hey ladies, just checking in on any new baby updates. My little Elijah is 1 month today I can’t believe how time flew by. Is it strange that I still have baby fever and want my pregnant belly back?? Lol
Rooroo- how are you?

Hello ladies, how are you all going?
I had my 32 week appointment yesterday, not much to report baby is head down 2/5 engaged - generally feeling okay apart the aches and pains of the 3rd trimester. I also had my iron infusion done last week, had some nasty side effects from that (headaches, nausea, up and down heart rate, dizziness) only lasted 48 hours - I'm starting to feel more energetic but should feel the feel effects in 3-6 weeks just in time for the birth.
I'm at fortnightly visits from now on so home stretch.

oh see Confuzed- So much conflicting info..
I was at a wedding on the weekend and one of the mums was telling me that you can apply for the 18 week payment from the government and your employer may also have a minimum week paid leave policy but they are not obligated to pay you.. at all..
Very strange! - Hope you start to feel better soon too!

I asked my boss this morning about a meeting about my Maternity Leave and he said 'we know you're leaving in 11 weeks, what more is there to discuss, you've given us plenty of notice"..oh dear.
I've since learnt that they've never had a staff member go on Mat Leave before and being a small company of 12 with no HR department, they may have no clue about requirements for Mat Leave.

Samantha Im not from Australia but I did live there a while back. I was studying law and we had a couple of cases about parental leave being denied by the employees and ended up in court.
The basic rules are set on this page: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/maternity-and-parental-leave/paid-parental-leave
Maybe give it a try.

One more pic!

Aww roo what a delight!! Congratulations to you and your family. Such a gorgeous little bubba. How are you feeling? I've been patiently waiting to hear the news xx Beautiful name by the way.

@confuzed thank you so much! I've been doing alright just trying to recover from this csection and I'll tell you what I admire any women that have given birth this way! I've delivered all my other children vaginally some with and some with out epidurals and this is sooooo much harder to recover from. But she makes it all worth it:) how have you been doing lately??