An employee can choose to extend their parental leave within the first 12 months, and can apply to extend the leave beyond 12 months.
Changing leave within the initial 12 months
After the period of parental leave has started, a request to extend a period of parental leave must be provided to an employer, in writing, at least 4 weeks before the end date for the parental leave..
If an employee has not requested a full 12 months parental leave, they can extend their leave, without approval from their employer, one time only.
When making this extension an employee must:
- inform their employer 4 weeks before the end date for the parental leave with a written notification
- include in the notification the new end date for the leave
- not exceed a total period of 12 months.
Any further requests to extend the leave up to a total period of 12 months from the time the leave began, must be agreed between the employer and the employee.
Requests to reduce a period of leave must also be agreed between an employer and an employee.
Note: employees should be aware that reductions in their period of parental leave may affect their eligibility for Parental Leave Pay under the Australian Government Paid Parental Leave scheme (where applicable). Further information about the scheme can be found at the Family Assistance Office’s website 
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While not required, it is recommended that any refusal or approval of a request to extend or change a period of leave be made in writing. There are various template letters for parental leave available in our Templates section
Extending leave beyond the initial 12 months
Under the National Employment Standards, an employee can request to extend the initial 12 month period of parental leave by up to an additional 12 months. These requests must be made to the employer in writing, at least 4 weeks before the end of the available parental leave period.
The employer is required to give their employee a written response as soon as practicable and no later then 21 days after the request is made.
An employer can only refuse to extend the leave on reasonable business grounds, and details of the reason must be clearly stated in the response. Reasonable business grounds may include, for example:
- The effect on the workplace and the business of approving the request, including the financial impact and the impact on efficiency, productivity and customer service
- The inability to organise work among existing staff
- The inability to recruit a replacement employee.