A maternity leave offer will remain in the federal police's workplace agreement after the industrial umpire rejected an appeal claiming it was based on a "sexist" idea that men cannot be primary caregivers.
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The Fair Work Commission in Brisbane has upheld its decision to allow four weeks of additional paid maternity leave in the Australian Federal Police's latest workplace agreement after hearing a case that could have forced employers to rethink paid time away for staff with newborn children.
In a May decision the commission in Canberra struck down the argument made by a delegate bargaining with the AFP after he objected to the new agreement, which he said discriminated against men because they did not give birth.
Christopher Budd, an employee bargaining representative, said the additional leave was "primary caregiver leave" that should apply also to fathers.
The leave was meant for the primary care of newborn children but rested on a sexist premise that men could or should not be the main carer, he said.
Mr Budd said Fair Work could not approve the agreement because the discrimination involved was unlawful.
Deputy president John Kovacic disagreed in a decision on May 17, saying eligibility was based on the length of an employee's service and their access to the Maternity Leave Act, a law which did not give paid or unpaid leave to men.
"It is these criteria rather than the sex of the employee which determine an employee's elibility for additional maternity leave," deputy president Kovacic said.
Mr Budd had also provided no evidence supporting his claim that the leave rested on a sexist idea that men could or should not be primary carers, he said.
Deputy president Kovacic found the leave was not unlawful or discriminatory, and approved the workplace agreement.
Mr Budd appealed the decision, saying he was denied procedural fairness, that the deputy president had shown bias against his argument and that he had erred in failing to find the maternity leave was unlawful.
Deputy presidents Ingrid Asbury and Val Paul Gostencnik, and commissioner Peter Hampton rejected his arguments and refused permission for the appeal last week.
The federal police earlier this year denied the leave discriminated against fathers and said Mr Budd argued wrongly assuming it was designed to provide paid time off only for female primary caregivers.
A woman who was a primary caregiver but not the child's birth mother was also unable to access the additional leave, the AFP said.
Its lawyers argued the leave was intended to give birth mothers another four weeks to recover, and Fair Work had to decide whether it was reasonable to offer this only to them, rather than whether the federal police should give fathers and primary caregivers some other form of time off.
