Parents & families

This page will help you find the information you need to understand your rights and responsibilities as a parent, carer or pregnant employee in the workplace.

On this page:

Parental and caring responsibilities

Employees who are pregnant or have parental or caring responsibilities can often take leave or request to set up flexible arrangements to help balance their work and family. Parental and caring responsibilities can include looking after:

  • a child who is school aged or younger
  • an immediate family or household member who is sick or injured
  • an immediate family or household member who needs care and support because of family or domestic violence.

Pregnancy in the workplace

Find information about pregnancy and the workplace at our Pregnant employee entitlements page.

Parental leave for Mums and Dads

Find information about applying for and taking leave after having or adopting a child on our Maternity and parental leave pages:

Find information about what happens when parental leave ends:

Balancing work and family

Find information about leave and other arrangements which can help employees balance work and family responsibilities:

You can also use our Templates to help you apply for leave and flexible working arrangements.

Workplace issues for parents and families

Parents in the workplace can’t be disadvantaged because of their family responsibilities or pregnancy.

Find out more about:

Tools and resources

Related information

Have a workplace problem?

Problems can happen in any workplace. If you have a workplace problem, we have tools and information to help you resolve it.

Check out our Fixing a workplace problem section for practical information about:

  • working out if there is a problem
  • speaking with your employer or employee about fixing the problem
  • getting help from us if you can't fix the problem.

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