Under the PPL scheme there is provision for employees to “Keep in Touch” (KIT) with their employer before the end of their PPL period, without losing their entitlement to payment, in order to facilitate their return to work for that employer. Paid work activities such as conferences, planning days, workshops or training days, or on-the- job training would meet the requirements for a KIT day. In addition, a KIT day must be agreed upon by both the mother and her employer, mothers can take up to 10 KIT days without losing their PLP entitlements, and they must be paid for those days. Overall, awareness of the KIT provision was low amongst the MoPE sample. In Table 4.19, only 42 per cent of mothers who took PLP indicated they were aware of the provision.
Table 4.19 Awareness of KIT days (PLP recipients)
Were you aware of KIT provisions? Per cent
Yes 42 No 58 Don’t know <1 Total 100 N 800 Source: MoPE
78 In Table 4.20, mothers’ reports of whether or not their employers had structured provisions in place for KIT days are presented. Of the mothers who had heard about KIT, only 23 per cent said their employers had put in place a structured program.
Table 4.20 Employer or business program for keeping in touch
Does your employer/business have a structured program in place for keeping in touch?
Per cent Yes 23 No 65 Don’t know 11 Total 99b N a 332 a
Total: number of PLP recipients who were aware of the KIT provisions.
b
Does not equal 100 per cent due to rounding. Source: MoPE
Table 4.21 Mothers’ use of KIT provisions
Have you used the KIT provisions? Per cent
Yes 29
No 71
Total 100
N 332
How many days have you returned to your workplace under the KIT provisions?
One day 30
Two days 23
Three days 14
Four or more days 25
Don’t know 8
Total 100
N a 96
Are you planning to use the KIT provisions sometime in the future? Yes 26 No 68 Don’t know 6 Total 100 N b 236 a
Total number of PLP recipients who indicated they had used KIT provisions
b
Total number of PLP recipients who had not yet used KIT provisions. Source: MoPE
Table 4.21 shows whether mothers had used the KIT provisions, or were planning on using the provisions. Of the mothers who had heard about the provisions, only 29 per cent (n = 96) had used a KIT day. Most of those mothers (67 per cent) had used 3 days or less, and only 8 mothers had used the full allocation of 10 days. Of the
79 mothers who had heard of KIT but had not used a KIT day, 26 per cent (n = 61) planned to use one in the future.
4.5.1 Qualitative views on KIT
More than one-half (58 per cent) of the mothers interviewed were not aware of the KIT provisions. Even amongst those who had heard of the provisions, many were not sure about how they operated.
A small number of the mothers, though, did use the KIT days. These mothers generally found the contact they had with their employer to be beneficial. For example, the KIT days enabled one mother to assist her employer with certain tasks and keep her connected with her workplace, while a few other mothers attended meetings and training sessions. In addition, a self-employed mother undertook some permissible work to help keep contact with her clients, and therefore help her business to keep going, during her leave period.
Despite only a minority of mothers using the KIT days, almost half actually had some contact with their employer while they were taking PLP, which did not include formal KIT provisions as provided for under the PPL legislation. These mothers maintained contact using pre-existing practices of their employers. For example, one organisation regularly informed a mother of developments in the business. The most common way that contact occurred, though, was informal. Mothers would either go into their employers’ workplace or phone or email to catch up with colleagues and introduce her baby to them.
A few mothers commented that the KIT provisions weren’t relevant to them. They considered that their job’s roles would not change or develop in their absence so there was no need to communicate with their employer. A few other mothers reported that they were either too busy or not interested in having contact with their employer while they were on leave.
4.5.2 Section Summary
Overall, there was a low level of general awareness of the KIT provisions, and uptake of KIT was limited. Few mothers knew about the scheme and, according to the mothers’ reports, even fewer employers had any formal keeping in touch programs in place. This aspect of the scheme was not emphasised in much of the documentation, and some inconsistencies between the PPL scheme and the existing unpaid parental leave entitlement under the National Employment Standards were identified. The KIT provisions encouraged and enabled mothers to resume work activities, in a limited manner, to assist with their transition back to work. However under the unpaid parental leave provisions in the National Employment Standards, if mothers returned to work at any point during that unpaid parental leave time then their entitlement could be cancelled. This inconsistency has recently been rectified with a modification to the Fair Work Act 2009 to include KIT provisions.