Schedule 1: Minor and consequential amendments Part 3: Time Off Work: Ante-Natal Care, Adoption Appointments Section 17: Time off work to attend adoption appointments
Section 17 amends the ERO, making provision for employed single adopters, or employed adoptive couples, to take time off to attend appointments relating to the placement of a child for adoption (including FFA arrangements). The purpose of the appointments is to enable the adopter(s) to bond with the child and to meet with professionals involved in the care of the child, thus increasing the chances of the adoption being successful.
Subsection (2) inserts new Articles 85ZJ to 85ZS into the ERO.
Subsection (3) amends Article 21 of the ERO to provide that the calculation date to be used for determining a week’s pay for an employee is the date of the appointment in question.
Subsection (4) amends Article 70C of the ERO to give an employee a right not to be subjected to a detriment as a result of exercising or proposing to exercise a right to time off work to attend adoption appointments. (A similar right for an agency worker not to be subjected to a detriment is created in section 18.)
Subsection (5) amends Article 112B of the ERO so that provision may be made that will exclude a person who has exercised the right to paid time off to attend adoption appointments from simultaneously availing of the right to paternity leave.
Subsection (6) amends Article 131 of the ERO to give an employee a right not to be unfairly dismissed, as a result of exercising or proposing to exercise a right to time off to attend adoption appointments.