Paid maternity leave priority for Australian affiliate

AUSTRALIA: As one of the key priorities for its Campaign 2003, the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union has launched a drive for women across Australia's manufacturing industry to have the right to 14 weeks' paid maternity leave. Currently, out of 250,000 women working in this country's manufacturing industry, only 15.4 per cent have access to any form of paid maternity leave. The convenor of the AMWU National Women's Committee, Anne Donnellan, said that women had contributed a great deal to Australia's workforce and employers had to recognise paid maternity leave as a legitimate workplace entitlement. Although the United Nations has recognised paid maternity leave as a fundamental human right for all women, Australia is one of the few countries in the world where women must bargain for their right to paid maternity leave. Only two countries in the OECD -- Australia and the United States -- have no access to maternity leave, and says Doug Cameron, AMWU national secretary, "we think it's about time Australia really got to the 21st century in relation to women's rights and the rights of babies." The union will ask for the minimum of 14 weeks, which is an international standard, at the paid rate for the workshop that its members are employed in, and says that companies will make sufficient savings through improved health of women in the workforce, through the retention of skills and having a far more content and satisfied workforce. In November 2002, General Motors' Australian subsidiary, Holden, unilaterally gave 14 weeks' paid leave to women in the manufacturing sector of GM.