Primary carer leave is available to:
- female employees who are having a baby (including surrogates), or her spouse or partner if they will become the primary carer and have all or part of the birth mother’s parental leave payments transferred to them
- employees who are going to have the primary responsibility for the care, development and upbringing of a child under six years on a permanent basis; this may be through adoption, or (external link)home for life(external link) or whangai (but it doesn’t include on a foster care or other temporary care basis). If the employee has a spouse or partner they need to choose who will be the primary carer.
Primary carer leave can be taken for up to 26 weeks and must be taken in one continuous period. Primary care leave can’t be taken if the employee has already taken any period of parental leave or similar leave in relation to that child.
In a surrogacy situation, both the birth mother and the new primary carer are fully entitled to primary carer leave and parental leave payments (if they meet the eligibility criteria). The birth mother's entitlements do not end when she hands over care of the child.
Start date
Primary carer leave starts on the due date or the date childbirth starts if the child is born to the employee. In any other case primary carer leave starts on the date that the employee becomes the primary carer in respect of the child. The employee can start their primary carer leave up to six weeks (or earlier with the employer’s consent) before the baby’s due date or the date on which the employee will become the primary carer of the child.
Pregnant women can start their primary carer leave earlier if:
- the baby is born before her scheduled leave, or
- directed by a doctor or midwife, or
- the employer considers that the pregnant employee’s work is unsafe, or her performance is inadequate, due to her pregnancy; and the employer can’t temporarily transfer her to another suitable job.
If the primary carer leave starts early (by medical or employer direction as above), the female employee giving birth may still take at least 20 weeks’ primary carer leave after the expected date of delivery birth (even if this means that she will have taken more than 26 weeks primary carer leave). In this situation the additional weeks of primary carer leave is not included in the calculation of the amount of extended leave available.
Scenario: Employee going on primary carer leaver early
Tania notifies her employer she will start her 26 weeks' primary carer leave two weeks before the due date and will take 26 weeks' extended leave (a total of 52 weeks' parental leave).
There are complications with Tania’ pregnancy and her midwife directs her to start her primary carer leave 12 weeks before her due date. Her healthy baby is born a couple of days before her due date. Tania is entitled to take at least 20 weeks’ primary carer leave after the expected date of delivery (a total of 36 weeks primary carer leave). In addition to this, she will still be able to take 26 weeks' extended leave (62 weeks minus 36 weeks' primary carer leave). This means Tania will have taken a total of 62 weeks' parental leave.
If the employee will be the primary carer but is not the birth mother of the child and the child is born early, then the employee will be able to take primary carer leave from the date that he or she becomes the primary carer of the child, but can take no more than 52 weeks’ parental leave.