Pharmaceutical organisation Johnson and Johnson has rolled out a global parental leave benefit to 60 of its operating locations in order to improve its maternity, paternity and adoption provision.
From 1 August 2017, the organisation rolled out enhanced parental leave in 60 countries including the UK, Malaysia, China, Australia, Belgium, Mexico, India, South Korea, New Zealand and Kenya.
It introduced the first of its global parental leave arrangements in the US in 2015. The organisation’s Brazil site brought the policies into effect from May 2017, while Argentina introduced the benefits from June 2017.
Between September 2017 and January 2018, Johnson and Johnson will roll out the enhanced parental leave benefits in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Switzrland, Israel, Russia and Germany.
Under the terms of its enhanced policy, all new parents will be entitled to a minimum of eight weeks fully paid maternity, paternity or adoption leave where more extensive provision did not previously exist.
For example, in Malaysia, the organisation has increased fully paid maternity leave, giving staff an additional 5.2 weeks on full pay on top of the existing six week recovery period and 2.8 weeks maternity leave. It has also extended paternity leave two days to eight weeks on full pay and introduced introduced eight weeks fully paid adoption leave, for which no previous provision was in place.
The enhanced parental leave forms part of a wider global family-friendly benefits package, which includes temperature controlled breast milk delivery for nursing mothers travelling for business purposes and on-site childcare centres. In addition, US employees can access financial benefits to help with the costs associated with having a family. This includes a $35,000 (£27,342) benefit to contribute towards fertility treatments, a $20,000 (£15,624) benefit to help families adopt a child under the age of 18, and a $20,000 reimbursement per child for eligible services related to surrogacy. Speech, occupational, and physical therapy, as well as applied behaviourial analysis, is also covered for US employees.
Peter Fasolo, executive vice president, chief human resources officer at Johnson and Johnson, said: “At Johnson and Johnson, we are making long-term investments in our employees, prioritising flexibility, fostering growth and sustained engagement, while meeting the needs of working families. We are proud to continually lead the way in providing progressive benefits to our employees, which in turn, creates healthier families and communities across the world.”
