Schneider Electric is rolling out a new family leave policy, aiming to cover all global employees by January 2019.
The global family leave policy will be deployed gradually, with employees in more than 40 countries, including China, India, Mexico and the United States, covered by January 2018, and 100 per cent of the energy management and automation company’s global workforce covered by January 2019.
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The plan provides 12 weeks of paid leave for the primary parent, and covers both natural birth and adoption. It also provides two weeks for the secondary parent, a week for the care of an immediate family member in need of elderly care or suffering from a serious health condition, as well as a bereavement leave of one week for the passing of an immediate family member.
Eligibility by country may vary based on local laws, noted a press release, and if a country’s legal requirement or current practice is more than the minimum standards in the new leave policy, the higher standards will be followed.
“In formulating the policy, Schneider Electric has actively chosen to define leave and family in an inclusive way, recognizing that definition of family, life and work are changing every day,” the company said in a statement.
“By design, the policy includes key life stages for welcoming a new baby, taking care of sick or elderly family members and mourning the loss of a family member. It also assumes an inclusive definition of family by extending an equal amount of parental leave to a parent by natural birth or adoption.”
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