Under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act, parental leave is available to:

• Employees who are having a child, and to their partners.
• Employees, male or female, who are adopting a child under five years old.
• Employees who have primary responsibility for the care, development and upbringing of a child under 6 years, including adoption.
  
  

To apply for parental leave under the Act the employee must have worked for the same employer for an average of at least ten hours a week for the immediately preceding twelve months (up to 52 weeks unpaid leave) or the immediately preceding six months (up to 26 weeks unpaid leave).

Applications for parental leave must be in writing to the employer, in most cases at least three months in advance. There are some exceptions for medical or work problems during pregnancy, and special provisions for adoption. Employees applying for parental leave must supply a certificate from their doctor.

Leave under the Act is unpaid.  There is a Paid Parental Leave payment for 26 weeks which is funded by the taxpayer through Inland Revenue (see below).

 Primary carer means:

• a female who is pregnant or has given birth to a child; or
• her partner, if she has transferred all or part of her entitlement to a parental leave
• payment to her partner (or if they have succeeded it) in which case the partner is the primary carer for the period of time in relation to which the entitlement is transferred; or
• a person, other than the birth mother or her partner, who takes permanent primary responsibility for the care, development, and upbringing of child who is under the age of 6 years, (and if there is more than 1 person, the person nominated).
  
  

Partner means:

Partner means the spouse or partner of the mother or nominated primary carer, male or female, same sex or different sex.

Special Leave

• Up to ten days unpaid for women during pregnancy for reasons connected with pregnancy (e.g. antenatal checks).
  
  

Primary Carer Leave

• Up to twenty six continuous weeks, which typically starts at the date of confinement.  It may start up to six weeks before the expected date of birth or adoption at the choice of the employee. It can start earlier by mutual agreement between the employer and the employee. Where, by reason of pregnancy, a female employee is unable to perform her work to the safety of herself or others or is incapable of performing her work adequately, her employer, may direct her to commence her primary carer leave on such date as the employer appoints (including a date that is earlier, by more than 6 weeks, than the expected date of delivery).
  
  

Partner's Leave

• Up to two continuous weeks’ unpaid leave for the primary carer’s partner around the expected date of birth or adoption, provided the partner has worked for the same employer for an average of at least ten hours a week for the immediately preceding 12 months (or up to one continuous week of unpaid leave where the partner has worked for the same employer for an average of at least ten hours a week for the immediately preceding 6 months).
  
  

Extended Leave

• Up to 52 continuous weeks unpaid leave (including any primary carer leave and partner's leave taken), is available in the twelve months after birth or adoption provided the employee has worked for the same employer for an average of at least ten hours a week for the immediately preceding 12 months (or up to 26 weeks where the employee has worked for the same employer for the same hours in the immediately preceding 6 months).

• Extended leave may be shared with the partner, provided the partner has worked for the same employer for an average of at least ten hours a week for the immediately preceding 12 months, but the total amount of extended leave must not exceed 52 weeks.
  
  

Negotiated Carer Leave 

• Employees who will be the primary carer of the child and would meet the work time and hours criteria to receive parental leave payments, but can’t take primary carer leave (because they don’t meet the criteria for parental leave), can make a request to their employer for negotiated carer leave.

Where an employee takes parental leave of four weeks or less, their job must be kept open. When an employee applies for extended leave (up to 52 weeks) the Act presumes that the employer will be able to grant the leave and keep the employee’s position open. The Act allows for the possibility that the employer may decide that the job concerned cannot be kept open because it is a key position and cannot be filled by a temporary replacement (Note that justifying that a position cannot be kept open is an extremely difficult test to satisfy). Many years of case law on this issue shows that it is extremely rare for an employer to win such a case on the grounds that a so-called “key position” cannot be kept open. The employee has a right to challenge any decision not to keep their position open.

If parental leave of over four weeks is taken and the employee has accepted that their job cannot be kept open, the employee will be entitled to a preference period of six months after the parental leave finishes, when the employer must offer her or him any available job substantially similar to the previous one.

Employers may not dismiss an employee for being pregnant or for applying for parental leave.

Employees who are dismissed or given notice of dismissal for one of these reasons have a special right to go directly to the Employment Relations Authority. They can ask for a temporary order to give them their job back, or to cancel the notice of dismissal. 

The key rules and procedures for dealing with parental leave situations are as follows:

• The eligible employee must give the employer 3 months written notice of when they want to take maternity leave – if the employee fails to give at least 3 months notice the employer does not have to grant the leave but must still consider whether or not it is reasonable not to:
  
  
  • The employee’s letter must specify their name, the type of leave being applied for and the dates they want to take the leave.
  • If they want to share the leave with their partner, then the partner must give their employer written notice to do so (also at least 3 months in advance).
  • The employee(s) must attach a copy of a medical certificate from the mother’s doctor or midwife stating the expected date of birth.
• The employer has seven days to inform the employee if they need any more information. If they do need more information, then the employee must give this within 14 days of being asked for it. 
• When the employer has all the information, they must reply to the application within 21 days, advising the employee if they are eligible for Parental Leave or not and whether their job can be held open.
• The employer must also provide the employee with written information about the parental leave entitlements available under the Act - view.
• The employer must, within 21 days of the employee’s parental leave commencing, write to the employee confirming:
  
  
  • When the employee’s parental leave is due to end.
  • When the employee can return to work.
  • The latest date by which the employee must advise if she is returning to work or not.
  • What the employee’s rights are if she wants to return to work early. Note that the employee may only return early by mutual agreement with the employee. 
• An employee who is already on parental leave must give to the employer at least 21 days written notice stating whether or not the employee will be returning to work at the end of their parental leave. In the case of a miscarriage, stillbirth, death or adopting out of the child, the employee is entitled to return to work early but is still required to give the employer 21 days notice. In other circumstances where the employee wishes to return to work early (e.g. for financial reasons) they may do so but only with the consent of the employer. 
• Here you can access all the relevant forms and letter templates view

Eligible employees are also entitled to claim up to 26 weeks of their parental leave entitlement as paid leave. The payment, which is funded by the taxpayer through the Inland Revenue Department, can be taken by one parent or shared between two eligible partners (including partners in same sex relationships). The payment provides replacement income where the parent is taking parental leave from their existing employment.

Employees are eligible for parental leave payments if they have been employed by the same employer for an average of at least ten hours a week for the immediately preceding 12 months, or the immediately preceding 6 months. Additional paid leave of up to 13 weeks leave is available if the baby is born before 37 weeks.  

Where the partner works (and the primary carer does not) the payment is not transferable to the partner because the primary carer has no entitlement to transfer in the first place. Those who qualify will receive either a gross weekly payment of the amount specified (view) or 100% of their previous weekly earnings, whichever is the lower. Like wages the payment is taxed. If an employee has more than one job, they are entitled to a total of the amount specified on, not that amount for each job.

The payment is also available to non-standard employees such as casuals and seasonal workers and employees with more than one employer. 

Paid "keeping in touch" days are also available by agreement with the employer, enabling the employee to work for up to 64 hours during their paid leave period by mutual agreement (but not within the first 28 days after birth or adoption).

Paid Parental Leave can start up to 6 weeks earlier than the mother’s Expected Due Date (EDD). 

Note: An employee who wants to take a period of paid leave at the start of their parental leave period may elect to start their parental leave payment period on the day after the date on which that period of paid leave ends. This leave could be annual holidays, alternative holidays, special leave or time off in lieu. 

Employers have a duty to fill in the employee’s paid parental leave form so the employee can receive the paid parental leave entitlement.

Employees wishing to receive paid parental leave entitlement must do so on the official application form which they can obtain from their maternity care provider (doctor or midwife), the Department of Labour or their union. The employee supplies the application form to their employer who completes it, hands it back to the employee who must then post it to Inland Revenue. The IR will make payments by direct credit to employee’s bank account. 

For a useful summary of employee entitlements see 

The employee may qualify for a Parental Tax Credit, but may not receive this as well as paid parental leave.  See http://www.ird.govt.nz/wff-tax-credits/entitlement/