On top of financial responsibilities, the most challenging part of having a baby might be taking care of them while juggling work.
For over 40,000 employees of Volvo Cars worldwide, 6-month paid parental leaves await from 1 Apr 2021 onwards, the car manufacturer announced on Tuesday (30 Mar).
Eligible individuals should have at least 1 year’s service under the company.
In doing so, Volvo Cars aims to champion gender equality in the realm of parenting.
On 30 Mar, Volvo Cars announced its ‘Family Bond’ policy granting employees 24 weeks of parental leaves.
Effective from 1 Apr 2021, over 40,000 employees are eligible worldwide, including Singapore, provided they have minimum 1 year’s service.
The leaves are paid with 80 percent of employees’ base salary, and are applicable to either parent within first 3 years of parenthood.
The policy takes inspiration from the brand’s home market – Sweden – where both parents have a total of 480 days’ leave by law.
By introducing the ‘Family Bond’ policy, Volvo Cars hopes to encourage more men to take up parental leaves.
It helps to narrow the gender gap when it comes to parenting, and supports equal parenting for all genders.
By setting the 6-month parental leave as the ‘default’, more employees are likely to take it up, as the company’s earlier pilot suggests.
This comes amid societal expectations of fathers being in the workplace.
Social pressures as such keep men from taking longer leaves to care for their babies.
Therefore, Volvo Cars hopes to set a global precedent in the industry to promote equal parenting.
As such, the policy applies to all legally registered parents, including adoptive, foster and surrogate parents. Non-birth parents in same-sex couples are included too.
This move by Volvo Cars certainly sets a new standard worldwide in terms of parenting and gender equality.
We applaud the carmaker for its family-oriented and people-centric values.
Getting fathers more involved in parenting has been an issue of concern in many countries, including Singapore.
Therefore, we hope that policies as such might steer our society a step closer to achieve equal parenting for all genders.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps.
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