Italian manufacturer Prysmian Group has launched a new policy to support any of its 30,000 employees globally who wish to take maternity leave.
The policy offers 12 weeks fully paid leave, covering both birth biological mothers and legal adoptive mothers, and ensures employees in all 50 countries where the statutory time period for maternity leave is short,have equal rights as their counterparts in other locations.
This is one of the first global actions initiated by the business, which will also support the gender balance goals that Prysmian Group has set for 2022, aiming to ensure female staff are not being penalised for any time they need to spend with their children.
Prysmian Group will also launch a back-to-work programme to ensure a smooth transition back into the workplace when an employee returns from maternity leave.
Fabrizio Rutschmann, chief human resources officer and organisation at Prysmian Group, said: "Before May 2020, we did not have any minimum standards for maternity defined at a global level. Each country stayed with the local legislation, as well as with local agreements with the employees and the works councils.
"Diversity and inclusion is definitely one of the main drivers of our people strategy. This means leveraging on everyone’s uniqueness while empowering collaboration and trust. It is embedded in our leadership model and our ][diversity and inclusion# programme Side by Side is currently addressing gender, age and culture diversity.
"Our strong commitment also comes with our 2022 gender balance targets, so I hope the step that we are taking now with our new policy will help us to be an even more inclusive company. We aim at protecting new mothers against discrimination, promoting gender equality and developing a strong caring approach."
