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Parental leave

Employees are entitled to parental leave provisions under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987. 
 
When recording an employee’s parental leave in EdPay, assigning the correct code means: 

  • the employee’s employment status is clear 

  • the employee will remain eligible for remediation payments, allowances, and other benefits they could be due to receive. 

Some employees working in the education service have additional parental leave provisions under their employment agreement. 

By law, parental leave includes five types of leave 

Parental leave includes: 

  • four types of unpaid leave 

  • one type of paid leave. 

Unpaid leave

Unpaid leave types Timeframe

Parental leave/ primary carer leave

14 continuous weeks

Special leave

Up to 10 days

Partner's leave

Up to 2 weeks

Extended leave

Up to 52 weeks

Paid leave

Paid leave type Funding

Paid parental leave

Up to 26 weeks


The Government funds up to 26 weeks' parental leave for eligible primary carers who take parental leave from their jobs. 

Your employee applies for paid parental leave using the Paid parental leave (PPL) application (IR880) available from Inland Revenue. After they have completed the applicant section, you: 

  • complete the employer section 

  • give the form back to your employee to send to the Inland Revenue. 

If you need help filling in the employer section, contact the Education Payroll Service Centre 

Some employment agreements have extra parental leave provisions

Some education sector employment agreements have parental leave provisions that are extra to what the law provides. Your employee's agreement might include: 

  • the parental grant  

  • extra unpaid parental leave. 

Parental grant

The parental grant is a grant for teachers, principals, special education assistants, and some therapists (employed before 1992) who: 

  • have been eligible to take parental leave for the baby or adopted child

  • produce their baby's birth certificate or evidence of an approved adoptive placement 

Unpaid leave extra provisions

Some collective agreements have unpaid parental leave provisions that are extra to what the law provides. 
Read more on the employment.govt.nz website: Parental leave