Temporary changes to parental leave
Temporary changes have been made to New Zealand’s parental leave law to allow some workers to go back to work temporarily during the COVID-19 outbreak without losing their remaining entitlement to parental leave, and its associated payments and protections. That means you could return to work for up to 12 weeks, and then go back on parental leave.
Your employer cannot tell you that you have to return to work from parental leave due to COVID-19.
This change applies to you if you are entitled to parental leave and you need to return to work early from parental leave for reasons related to the COVID-19 outbreak, because:
- your skills, experience or qualification mean that nobody else can fill your role, or
- there is unusually high demand for workers in your role.
If you are unsure whether you fit these criteria, you can send a message to Inland Revenue through your myIR account to enquire about your situation or call 0800 227 773.
Check your eligibility
To check your eligibility for a temporary return to work, or to notify that you have temporarily returned to work, call Inland Revenue on 0800 227 773.
Even if you went back to work not knowing that there would be an option to return to parental leave later, you can contact Inland Revenue and ask about the change being applied to your parental leave.
When your temporary return to work ends, you will need to phone Inland Revenue again to notify them that you are resuming parental leave.
You still need to have applied for paid parental leave through the usual process before this change can apply to your parental leave.
What returning to work will mean for you
This change allows one temporary return to work for up to 12 weeks.
You will not be considered to be 'on parental leave' in any way while you are temporarily back at work due to COVID-19.
This means that while you are back at work:
- you will temporarily stop receiving parental leave payments
- you will receive Best Start payments
- you will not use any of your 'keeping in touch' hours
- the weeks you work will not be deducted from the maximum period you can receive parental leave payments
- the weeks you work will not be deducted from the maximum period you can be on parental leave, including extended leave
- you will temporarily not be able to transfer your parental leave entitlement to your spouse or partner.
When you stop work again (and notify Inland Revenue), your parental leave will resume as if it was 'paused' on the day you temporarily returned to work. This means:
- you will start to receive parental leave payments again (if you are eligible for payments and have entitlement remaining), and will have the same remaining entitlement to payments as you had when you temporarily returned to work
- you will stop receiving Best Start payments if you start receiving parental leave payments (Best Start payments will resume when you permanently end your paid parental leave).
- you can use your keeping in touch hours, and will have the same balance as you had when you temporarily returned to work
- you will be able to transfer your parental leave entitlement to your spouse or partner.
This temporary return to work will affect how some of your entitlements work, but you will not miss out on any of the entitlements you would have otherwise had.
All your parental leave entitlements will be ‘paused’ while you are back at work temporarily. When you finish your temporary return to work, you will have the same remaining entitlement to parental leave payments, Keeping In Touch hours, and the same number of remaining weeks of paid leave and extended leave as you had when you ‘paused’ your parental leave.
Your employer cannot tell you that you have to return to work from parental leave due to COVID-19.
This change to the law allows you to return temporarily to work due to COVID-19 if you and your employer agree. Your employer cannot require you to come back to work early if you want to stay on parental leave.