Reflecting on the case study, consider the strengths and weaknesses of current Australian law in its provision of parental leave for workers.

Case study: Taylor is a New Zealander who has been living in Australia for more than ten years. She currently holds an SCV Visa. Taylor married an Australian man about five years ago and they are now almost five months pregnant, with the birth due on 3 December 2021.

Taylor started working for a medium-sized financial consultancy firm called WEALTH P/L on a part-time basis (with a regular three days per week) on 15 October 2020. Even though she wasn't eligible for paid annual leave, she took an approved six weeks off for an extended overseas honeymoon from 4^th March 2021 to 15th April 2021, returned to WEALTH, and has been working there until today. Taylor earns $120,000 a year and is eligible for an additional 20% in bonuses each year at WEALTH.

Today (22 July 2021), Taylor told her boss Hugo that she is pregnant and will be seeking to go on parental leave closer to the due date. Taylor is a very organized person and doesn't like leaving things to chance. She presented her application to Hugo for parental leave. Taylor's application for parental leave requested the following:

Four (4) weeks parental leave before the due date of the birth;

Twelve (12) weeks leave from the birth of the child;

a further 30 days of parental leave, to be taken in the form of 2 days leave per week for ten weeks (That is, on conclusion of three months initial parental leave, Taylor wants to work one day a week for ten weeks); and after this,

an additional twelve months leave.

Taylor asked Hugo whether he would approve her application for parental leave, to give her some certainty. Hugo asked Taylor to give him some time to go over the details with WEALTH's HRM Consultant.

A week later, Hugo gets back to Taylor. He tells her this is the first time WEALTH P/L has had to consider a parental leave application and he needs to get some legal advice. However, he says, she will not be eligible for the government's paid parental leave because she works part-time. Further, WEALTH cannot accommodate her request to return on a one-day a week basis for those 10 weeks: coming in to work only one day a week would not give her enough time to service WEALTH clients effectively. Hugo also said he doubts Taylor will qualify for parental leave at all given the short time she has been employed there. However, he promised to investigate and give her a final response in a few weeks. Secretly, Hugo would like Taylor to just leave in frustration rather than put the company through what he considers will be the eventual 'pain' of her parental leave. Taylor decides to ask her trade union for some advice.