Diageo to offer 26 weeks of family leave

Diageo is beginning a global roll-out of an new family leave policy applicable to employees across its business.

The new global policy offers female employees in all markets a minimum of 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leave.

A number of businesses, including North America, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Colombia, Venezuela, and Australia, are also moving to offer 26 weeks of fully-paid paternity leave.

The policy is aimed at helping employees focus on the joy of raising a young family, while continuing to thrive at work, and ensuring women and men are supported to have time with their new baby regardless of where they live and work.

“We are committed to creating a fully inclusive and diverse workforce and we strongly believe that businesses play a significant role in shaping the future of society. Global businesses like Diageo must make bold moves on policies and the environments in which their employees work to ensure that the progress people deserve happens,” said Mairéad Nayager, Chief HR Officer of Diageo.

The new policy will go live in most countries at the start of Diageo’s new financial year, from the 1st July 2019, with further countries to implement the policy over the course of the year.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg announced that all of its male and female employees would be entitled to 26 weeks of parental leave; applicable also for adoptions and foster placements.