Keeping in Touch days and Parental Leave

Keeping in Touch days allow an employee who is on unpaid parental leave to go back to work for a few days.

Keeping in Touch days are a great way for an employee who is the primary carer of a child to refresh their skills, become familiar with new or updated processes and assist their return to work.

Work on a Keeping in Touch day may include:

• participating in a planning day
• doing training or
• attending a conference.

An employee on unpaid parental leave gets 10 Keeping in Touch days. This doesn’t affect their unpaid parental leave entitlement. If the employee extends their period of unpaid parental leave beyond 12 months, they can take an additional 10 days.

The employee gets their normal wage for each Keeping in Touch day or part day. There is no obligation on the employee to use the Keeping in Touch days if they do not wish to and both employer and employee must both agree to take part in a Keeping in Touch activity. Either party can decide they don’t want the Keeping in Touch activity to take place.

Keeping in Touch days can be worked:

• as a part day
• 1 day at a time
• a few days at a time, or
• all at once.

There are some parameters about the type of work the employee can undertake on Keeping on Touch days and how long after they become primary carer of a child that they can participate in their first Keeping in Touch activity. Visit the Department of Human Services website for more information.

At Bare Bones Consulting, we confess to knowing zip about babies. What we do know is Human Resources. Whether you’re in business start-up phase or an established business, we know the best ways to manage your HR risks and get the best from your people. Need something fixed or just like a chat about making your business work smarter, grow stronger and move faster? Give us a call or contact us here. Go on. You know it’s time.