Unions Tas: Paid Maternity Leave Celebration

Unions celebrate parental leave scheme with working mums and dads at St Mary's College

On the morning after the federal budget announcement Tasmanian unions celebrated the historic announcement of a government-funded paid maternity leave scheme for the majority of Australian women and their families at a morning tea with the staff at St Mary's College.

Unions Tasmania Secretary, Simon Cocker , Convenor of the Unions Tasmania Womens Committee, Roz Madsen , Independent Union Secretary, Angela Briant and representatives of the groups involved in the Tasmanian coalition supporting Paid Parental Leave attended the celebration and shared a “Mum's Rights at Work” cake with the St Mary's staff.

This was an important occasion in a long and hard-fought campaign. Australians have been campaigning for 30 years for action on this issue. In Tasmania a coalition of over forty groups supporting paid parental leave formed out of a Unions Tasmania organised seminar in 2008 to help with the “final push” for paid maternity leave.

Unions Tasmania Secretary, Simon Cocker remarked on the appropriateness of choosing a girls' school to mark the moment, “This generation of young women will go into the workforce as the best educated and highest skilled generation of working Tasmanians ever and will be an essential part of our economy. They are not going into the 60s workforce where women were expected to resign on marriage. They are not entering the 70s workforce where it was considered radical when Gough Whitlam's government legislated maternity leave for commonwealth employees or the 80 s workforce where it was necessary to legislate equal employment opportunity and affirmative action programs to pave the way for women's careers. This is the 21 st century and paid maternity leave for all is now in sight.”

Vanessa Ireland , Louise Wright , Kate Lakos and Roz Madsen cut the “mum's rights at work” celebration cake.


	Unions celebrate parental leave scheme with working mums and dads at St Mary's College On the morning after the federal budget announcement Tasmanian unions celebrated the historic announcement of a government-funded paid maternity leave scheme for the majority of Australian women and their families at a morning tea with the staff at St Mary's College. Unions Tasmania Secretary, Simon Cocker , Convenor of the Unions Tasmania Womens Committee, Roz Madsen , Independent Union Secretary, Angela Briant and representatives of the groups involved in the Tasmanian coalition supporting Paid Parental Leave attended the celebration and shared a “Mum's Rights at Work” cake with the St Mary's staff. This was an important occasion in a long and hard-fought campaign. Australians have been campaigning for 30 years for action on this issue. In Tasmania a coalition of over forty groups supporting paid parental leave formed out of a Unions Tasmania organised seminar in 2008 to help with the “final push” for paid maternity leave. Unions Tasmania Secretary, Simon Cocker remarked on the appropriateness of choosing a girls' school to mark the moment, “This generation of young women will go into the workforce as the best educated and highest skilled generation of working Tasmanians ever and will be an essential part of our economy. They are not going into the 60s workforce where women were expected to resign on marriage. They are not entering the 70s workforce where it was considered radical when Gough Whitlam's government legislated maternity leave for commonwealth employees or the 80 s workforce where it was necessary to legislate equal employment opportunity and affirmative action programs to pave the way for women's careers. This is the 21 st century and paid maternity leave for all is now in sight.” Vanessa Ireland , Louise Wright , Kate Lakos and Roz Madsen cut the “mum's rights at work” celebration cake.
Authorised by Simon Cocker, Unions Tasmania 379 Elizabeth St North Hobart Tasmania 7000 - ph: 03 6234 9553 - site enquiries jprice@unionstas.com.au

	UNIONS TASMANIA
Tasmanian Branch of the ACTU