Parental Leave Policy

In our first year of launching Future Super in 2014, we were a $36 million dollar fund with a team of about eight people; a small fund with big aspirations of harnessing the power of superannuation to fight climate change and reduce inequality.

By November 2016, we developed a parental leave policy that essentially provided equal parental leave benefits to all parents, regardless of gender or carer status. At the time - believe it or not - this policy was considered progressive, with Medibank “making history” for introducing the same in 2018. For our team, it was already mainstream. If our aspiration is to reduce inequality then it was obvious that, as a workplace, we had to develop a parental leave policy acknowledging all types of parents with equal responsibility for the upbringing of children.

Thanks to the pandemic, the negative consequences of persistent gender gaps and norms were again brought to the forefront. Unsurprisingly, women often take the brunt of additional unpaid caregiving work, perpetuating long-standing societal inequalities.

Fast forward to 2023 and our company has grown into a $10 billion dollar fund with a team of over 120 people. We recognise that parenting, the journey to it plus the journey back to work - is complex and definitely not a one-size-fits all type of thing - and our policy needs to reflect this, too.

So we’ve revised our parental leave policy to incorporate the following:

Equal paid parental leave benefits regardless of gender or carer status, with greater flexibility and no minimum service requirements
Foster and kinship care leave
Paid pre-adoption, pre-fostering, pre-surrogacy and fertility leave
Surrogate leave
Additional leave for special circumstances
Career coaching sessions before, during and after parental leave
Flexible return to work benefits

At Future Group we are committed to reducing inequality in the workplace. We are passionate about investing in you, prioritising your wellbeing, and celebrating your work and life milestones.

1 Parental Leave
2 Foster and Kinship Care Leave
3 Surrogate Leave
4 Additional Leave
- 4.1 Loss of Pregnancy Post-20 Weeks, Stillbirth and Neonatal Death
- 4.2 Miscarriage or Loss of Pregnancy Prior to 20 Weeks
5 Definitions
6 Policy Breaches
7 Related Policy Documents and Supporting Documents

Parental Leave

All full-time or part-time (permanent or fixed-term) employees – regardless of length of service – who have or will have responsibility for the care of a new child through birth, adoption, or surrogacy, can access 20 weeks of paid parental leave. This leave:

Will be calculated based on the average ordinary hours of work per week in the 6 months prior to the employee’s leave. For example, if someone worked 37.5 hours per week for three months prior to taking parental leave, and worked 22.5 hours per week in the three months prior to that, they would receive 20 weeks of paid parental leave at 30 hours per week;
Is in addition to any government Parental Leave Pay an employee may be eligible for, which can be applied for separately through Services Australia;
Can be taken during the first three years of birth, adoption or long-term foster placement, and up to six weeks prior;
Can be taken in one continuous block or several blocks (with approval from the employee’s leader and People & Sustainability), however, each block must be a minimum of 4 weeks;
Can be taken at full-time pay (i.e. 20 weeks at their full-time salary) or half-time pay (i.e. 40 weeks at half their full-time salary);
Can be taken in conjunction with any available Annual Leave, Long Service Leave, Purchased Leave and Unpaid Leave, as agreed with the employee’s leader and People & Sustainability.

If taking in one block, an employee can take up to 12 months of leave (inclusive of any paid or unpaid components). Up to 12 months of additional unpaid parental leave can also be requested, with at least 4 weeks’ written notice to the People & Sustainability team. While we will try our best to approve requests, approval will depend on the business and team needs.

NOTE: Permanent employees who are on parental leave (paid or unpaid) when this policy comes into effect, will have any benefits of this policy that are additional to our existing entitlements extended to them.

Additional Parental Leave-Related Entitlements

In addition to the above leave entitlements, those taking parental leave will also receive the following:

Superannuation payments will be paid up to 12 months after the commencement of each instance of parental leave, regardless of whether the employee is on paid or unpaid leave. These payments will be based on the employee’s annual ordinary working hours for the 6 months prior to commencement of parental leave. If an employee is eligible for the additional 1% super, they will continue to receive it during this time.
Annual leave will continue to accrue during the paid portion of parental leave. If the employee has elected to access parental leave at half pay, annual leave will accrue at half the normal rate.
Personal/carer’s leave will continue to accrue up to 12 months after the commencement of parental leave. The rate of accrual for this period will be based on the average number of days per week worked in the 6 months prior to the leave.
Up to 12 months of the parental leave period (paid or unpaid) will count towards service for the purposes of determining long service leave eligibility, and will accrue Long Service Leave (LSL). Any period beyond this will not count towards service or accrue LSL but will not break continuity of service.
Employees will have access to three private one-hour career coaching sessions from a third-party provider chosen by Future Group, before, during and after parental leave.
Any existing Allowance payments an employee receives (eg. Working From Home Allowance or Phone Allowance) will continue to be provided during paid parental leave. These payments will be halved in the case of an employee taking paid parental leave at half pay.
If the employee is a participant in the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP), their vesting schedule will continue as normal for up to 12 months of each instance of parental leave.

Additional Guidelines

Additional points to note about Future Group Parental Leave are:

Paid parental leave is inclusive of public holidays:
- Any public holidays that fall within the period of paid parental leave will not be paid in addition to the parental leave entitlement. As such, this will not extend the paid parental leave period by the commensurate number of days.
- Any public holidays that fall within any unpaid leave taken while on parental leave will not be paid.
The employee’s salary will be considered for review within the annual remuneration review process, regardless of whether they are on parental leave.
The employee will not be excluded from consideration for promotion on the basis that they are about to go on parental leave, are on parental leave or have just returned from parental leave.
While on parental leave, employees will be able to continue to access their professional development budget to use for continuous learning.
Parental leave that isn’t used within the first three years of birth, adoption or long-term foster placement cannot be carried over and/or cashed out, nor will it be paid out at the end of employment.

Process for Taking Paid Parental Leave

To help teams plan for their team member’s absence, we ask that employee’s planning to take parental leave:

Let their leader know at least 12 weeks’ before (or as soon as practicable) the planned commencement date of their leave and the intended return date; and
If plans change, the employee should re-confirm the commencement and return dates with their leader at least four weeks before the planned commencement and return dates or as soon as practicable; and
Once they have let their leader know, reach out to People & Sustainability as soon as practicable. The People & Sustainability team will help guide them through the parental leave process and answer any questions.

Returning to Work From Parental Leave

To help with the transition back into the workplace after Parental Leave, employees will have access to the following:

Full-time staff can choose to work four days per week, but be paid for a full five-day week, for their first 12 weeks back at work;
We’ll be guided by the employee in terms of how many days and hours will be worked upon return. This will be discussed and agreed upon before the parental leave period and re-confirmed prior to the return to work;
Flexible work arrangements such as flexible working hours will be available as normal, again in discussion and agreement between the employee and their leader;
If an employee returns to work part-time in a role that would otherwise be worked full-time were it not for caring responsibilities, the employee will receive super contributions at full-time rates for the first 12 months after return from parental leave. An employee that feels this applies to them should speak with People & Sustainability to discuss – once approved, payroll will be advised to process their superannuation accordingly.

Foster and Kinship Care Leave

All permanent and fixed-term employees who are accredited foster carers and will have responsibility for the care of a new child by way of long-term foster care, will have access to all parental leave benefits as outlined in Section 6. A long-term fostering placement is one that lasts two years or longer.

If an employee has responsibility for the care of a new child through short-term foster care or kinship care, they can access up to four weeks of paid foster and kinship care leave per financial year.

Short-term foster care and kinship care includes:

Short-term foster caring, which is the temporary care of a child of up to 18 years of age on a short-term basis (less than two years) by an employee who is an accredited foster carer;
Kinship care, which is temporary care provided by the employee to someone who is a relative or a member of the child’s social network, when the child cannot live with their caregivers; and
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship care, which is temporary care provided by an employee who is a relative or a friend of a child who cannot live with their parents or carers, where family and community and First Nations culture are valued as central to the child’s safety, stability and development.

There is often a great deal of uncertainty about the length of time a child will remain in foster or kinship care. This means that there is often a great deal of uncertainty for foster parents and kinship carers. We wanted to outline the baseline entitlements above, however, we will afford flexibility wherever possible and consider each situation on a case-by-case basis as needed and with guidance from the foster agency or the like.

Surrogate Leave

If an employee is a birth-giver who enters into a surrogacy agreement to carry a baby for someone else, they will be entitled to 18 weeks of paid surrogacy leave, assuming the surrogacy arrangement meets the requirements of the law of a state or territory that applies in relation to the surrogacy arrangement.

To help teams plan for their team member’s absence, we ask that employee’s planning to take surrogate leave:

Let their leader know at least 12 weeks’ before (or as soon as practicable) the planned commencement date of their leave and the intended return date; and
If plans change, the employee should re-confirm the commencement and return dates with their leader at least four weeks before the planned commencement and return dates or as soon as practicable; and
Once they have let their leader know, reach out to People & Sustainability as soon as practicable. The People & Sustainability team will help guide them through the process and answer any questions.

Additional Leave

Content Warning: the next section of this policy discusses pregnancy and child loss.

Loss of Pregnancy Post-20 Weeks, Stillbirth and Neonatal Death

In the event of a loss of pregnancy (either through miscarriage or medically required termination) after 20 weeks of birth, a stillbirth or neonatal death (within 28 days of birth):

Employees who are the birthing parent will have access to paid parental leave and entitlements listed in section 6; or
Employees who are the non-birthing parent can access up to four weeks of paid discretionary leave.
Should someone wish to return to work earlier (at their full discretion), they should provide their leader or the People & Sustainability team with two weeks’ notice, to allow us time to make arrangements for the transition back to work.
For this leave type we’re distinguishing between birthing and non-birthing parents in terms of the support we are providing. We want to recognise the fact that carrying a baby and the birthing process is a physically demanding experience for the birthing parent. While we want to support both parents as they grieve, we’re providing additional parental leave to the birthing parent to allow the body sufficient time to fully heal and recover.

Miscarriage or Loss of Pregnancy Prior to 20 Weeks

In the event of a miscarriage or termination of pregnancy for medical reasons prior to 20 weeks of pregnancy, employees can access up to 4 weeks of paid Compassionate Leave.
Should someone wish to return to work earlier (at their full discretion), they should speak with their leader or the People & Sustainability team with notice as soon as reasonably possible.

Definitions

Ordinary Working Hours are the hours specified as an employee’s ordinary hours of work in an employee’s employment agreement or relevant variation letter. It refers to the expected hours of work and does not include overtime.

Policy Breaches

Non-compliance with this policy may result in disciplinary action (up to and including the termination of employment).To the extent that this policy imposes and obligation on Future Group, it does not form a contractual term, condition or representation. Future Group has the right to change, remove or replace any obligation, benefit or entitlement at any time.