{"id":7399,"date":"2026-05-08T08:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7399\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T08:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:38:18","slug":"long-service-leave-win-for-sa-teacher-after-she-takes-up-fight-following-parenting-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7399\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-service leave win for SA teacher after she takes up fight following parenting break"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 11 years of teaching in New South Wales, Rachel Toyer decided to move to Adelaide before embarking on a solo IVF journey.<\/p>\n

“I thought that doing it here in SA, which felt like such a progressive place, I thought this was where I’d want to be as a solo mum by choice \u2014 in a new family type \u2014 and it’s actually just been a constant disappointment,” Ms Toyer said.<\/p>\n

Ms Toyer worked contract to contract at public schools from 2017, while hoping her dream of raising a child would become a reality.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rachel Toyer moved to South Australia after deciding to become a solo IVF mum by choice. (Supplied: Rachel Toyer)<\/p>\n

“I was quite literally injecting hormones for IVF on school camp,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I organised my appointments as much as possible, around when I had classes, around meetings \u2014 this is what teachers do.”<\/p>\n

The former humanities teacher thought her sacrifices would pay off when she had access to long service leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disadvantaging female teachers<\/p>\n

Unbeknown to her, Ms Toyer’s long service leave was cancelled after she inadvertently broke a “three-month rule” when her son was about eight months old.<\/p>\n

“When my son got sick, I thought … foolishly, ‘I wonder if they’ll give [my long service leave] to me a little early?'” Ms Toyer said.<\/p>\n

At the time, South Australian public school contract teachers would lose their leave entitlements if they had a more than three-month gap in service, excluding school holidays and SA Department for Education approved leave, even if they were taking Commonwealth paid parental leave.<\/p>\n

This is not the case in other states like Queensland and NSW, where federal paid parental leave does not break a teacher’s ongoing leave provisions.<\/p>\n

“I worked at the very last possible opportunity of the three months in my mind,” Ms Toyer said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rachel Toyer said her leave entitlements were reinstated after months of negotiations. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

The former teacher said she was devastated, and argued the policy disadvantaged women who predominantly made up the industry.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority of those have babies \u2014 the policy affects them more than everyone else \u2014 and they are people taking gaps in their service, but the gap is to have a baby.”<\/p>\n

“Most people don’t know the policy exists, those who do know it exists \u2026 still can’t meet the expectation either by circumstance of being a new mum or by fact that their school is not re-employing them.”\"a<\/p>\n

Ms Toyer has shared her experience and raised concerns with the South Australian Employment Tribunal about the ‘three-month break in service’ rule. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

‘Hiding pregnancies’ to secure contracts<\/p>\n

Ms Toyer said the pressure on contract teachers did not end there.<\/p>\n

“Women hide their pregnancies, quite literally don’t announce their pregnancies … to try and secure contracts,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former teacher said she delayed her IVF process to make sure she was not visibly pregnant when her school was offering contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, an Education Department spokesperson said it has a supportive environment for expectant mothers and “well-established processes are in place to enable them to return to work”.<\/p>\n

Ms Toyer raised her complaint about the three-month long service leave policy as part of a case that is currently before the South Australian Employment Tribunal, which last heard the matter on April 24.<\/p>\n

A decision on the matter is yet to be handed down.<\/p>\n

Department shares policy update<\/p>\n

Last week, a newsletter sent to teachers “promoted” an update to outline how parenting breaks interacted with breaks in service.<\/p>\n

Now, contract teachers can take up to a 15-month break in service for parenting responsibilities, without their long-service leave being impacted.<\/p>\n

But the Department for Education has been hesitant to acknowledge it was a policy change.<\/p>\n

“What has changed is the way we explain and administer those rules to ensure a simpler and clearer process for teachers,” a department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The department has been exploring options to clarify this policy.<\/p>\n

“When a teacher has advised the department that they have taken time away from the department due to parenting responsibilities \u2026 either through another contract or [relief] work, the department has reinstated their continuity of service and any leave entitlements.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Education Minister Lucy Hood says teachers can have conversations with the department if they believe they might be eligible to have their long-service leave reinstated. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)<\/p>\n

In response to Ms Toyer’s experience, Education Minister Lucy Hood said Ms Toyer’s case was a “unique circumstance”.<\/p>\n

“In this case, when she’s raised those concerns, her entitlements have been returned, which I think is the most important point, and then we continue that work to make sure that there’s that information and clarity for other teachers in that situation,” Ms Hood said.<\/p>\n

A Department for Education spokesperson confirmed “dozens” of teachers have had their long-service leave reinstated since 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 11 years of teaching in New South Wales, Rachel Toyer decided to move to Adelaide before embarking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,3132,8708,8709,8703,8702,8704,8707,8705,8706,1019,8701],"class_list":{"0":"post-7399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-change","11":"tag-education-department","12":"tag-ivf","13":"tag-long-service-leave","14":"tag-lucy-hood","15":"tag-maternity-leave","16":"tag-parental-leave","17":"tag-rachel-toyer","18":"tag-saet","19":"tag-school","20":"tag-south-australian-department-for-education"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}