Other leave entitlements during parental leave

Find out what other types of leave employees can take when on unpaid parental leave.

On this page:

Accumulating leave during parental leave

An employee doesn't usually accumulate any type of paid leave while they're on unpaid parental leave, unless they’re on a keeping in touch day. This includes paid leave such as annual leave or sick leave.

Long service leave entitlements may accrue while on unpaid parental leave depending on the rules set by your state or territory. Find your local long service leave agency to see what applies on our Long service leave page.

Paid leave also doesn't accumulate when an employee is getting the Australian Government Paid Parental Leave Scheme payments, if the person is taking unpaid leave from their employer at this time.

Paid leave may accumulate when an employee is on employer-funded paid parental leave.

Taking other leave during parental leave

Unpaid parental leave

During unpaid parental leave, employees can take:

If there's a public holiday during the annual leave, it isn’t paid.

During unpaid parental leave, employees can’t take:

Paid Parental Leave scheme

The Paid Parental Leave scheme is a Services Australia scheme that provides financial support for eligible parents usually through their employer. This scheme is separate to unpaid parental leave and employer-funded paid parental leave.

Employees can use parental leave pay (PLP) before, after or at the same time as their paid and unpaid leave entitlements. This includes:

  • annual leave
  • long service leave
  • unpaid parental leave.

Learn more about the Paid Parental Leave scheme and PLP at the Services Australia website:

Example: Taking annual leave during unpaid parental leave

Maggie is about to take 12 months unpaid parental leave. She wants to take some annual leave during her leave so she has income in the later months of her unpaid leave.

She agrees with her employer to take 4 weeks annual leave in her ninth month of unpaid parental leave. These 4 weeks don't extend Maggie's unpaid parental leave period. Instead, they will run at the same time.

There's a public holiday during Maggie's annual leave. She won't be on annual leave for the public holiday and won't get paid for it. She agrees with her employer to extend her period of annual leave by 1 day, so she still gets paid for 4 weeks of leave. 

Tools and resources

Related information

Need help resolving workplace issues about pregnancy, parental leave and returning to work?

For employees:

If you’ve lost your job, contact the Fair Work Commission (the FWC) first if you think you were fired because of:

  • discrimination
  • a reason that is harsh, unjust or unreasonable
  • another protected right.

You have 21 days from the day you were fired to lodge an application with the FWC. Check the information at the FWC website to find out if you can apply for:

For employees and employers:

  • Find information, downloadable guides and toolkits on pregnancy, parental leave and parents in the workplace on the Supporting working parents external-icon.png website. 
  • Learn about discrimination, bullying or sexual harassment in the workplace and what can be done to stop it.
  • If you think a mistake has been made about pay, parental leave or returning to work, see our Fixing a workplace problem section for practical advice on:
    • figuring out if a mistake has been made
    • talking to your employer or employee about fixing it
    • getting help from us if you still can’t resolve it.

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