The ECR Parents Alliance is a group of higher degree research (HDR) students and early career researchers (ECRs) from across Australian tertiary institutions.
We are seeking an update in Commonwealth legislation to recognise research students in the Paid Parental Leave scheme (PPL).
We are also working to make sure that individual universities’ policies recognise the significant financial and academic contribution HDRs and ECRs make by ensuring they are eligible for paid leave during parental leave periods.
Under current legislation, PhD candidates are not eligible for the Australian Government Paid Parental Leave scheme (PPL) because their activities do not meet the ‘work test’.
Full-time PhD candidates are required to conduct research 40 hours per week, 48 weeks per year. They work alongside academics and contribute to research outputs, including through publications, teaching, conferences and ‘academic citizenship’ roles such as editing journals and organising conferences and seminars.
PhD candidates’ responsibilities are similar to those of an employee and generally preclude candidates from additional paid work. Some candidates work on top of their 40 hours of research as tutors, lab or research assistants at their university. This work is generally casual and/or sessional, making it difficult for candidates to meet the Paid Parental Leave ‘work test’, which requires carers to have worked both:
10 of the 13 months before the birth or adoption of their child;
and a minimum of 330 hours, around one day a week, in that 10 month period.
Some candidates receive a scholarship stipend to cover living expenses. Both university and government funded scholarship stipends commonly restrict the number of hours a candidate can work outside of their research. For example, at some Australian universities, candidates are generally not permitted to work more than 8 hours a week Monday-Friday, averaged over a 6 month period. At other universities, the conditions of the stipend require permission from a primary supervisor to undertake paid-employment outside of their research.
Without an update to the Commonwealth PPL scheme, HDRs will continue to ‘fall through the cracks’ during their candidature.