Parental leave shouldn't be gender bias: Deutsche India to grant 6-month leave to fathers

Deutsche Bank (DB) will offer 6 months childcare leave to fathers, if they happen to be primary caregivers, across Asia Pacific. Taking a revolutionary step, the bank has decided to introduce a policy to delink parental leave from gender from January 1, 2017, reported Times of India.

 

This is a major step towards breaking gender stereotypes.

 

According to an internal notice circulated to the employees, Deutsche Bank stated: The new parental leave policy centres on the caregiver's responsibility, rather than tie parental leave to gender, and replaces what was previously called maternity/paternity leave. It also covers surrogacy and adoption and aligns it with parental leave entitlements. Deutsche Bank employees who are new parents can choose to either be the primary caregiver or the non-primary caregiver within the duration of the parental leave. Employees who are non-primary caregivers can continue to take 10 working days paid leave after the birth of their child or adoption of a child below 7 years of age.

 

Earlier this year, the bank had revised its maternity leave from 16 weeks to 26 weeks, while paternity leave was revised from 5 to 10 working days.

 

The Parliament had increased maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks in September, a step that benefits about 1.8 million women in the organised sector and aims at increasing the strength of the working women force.

 

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 facilitates ‘work from home’ for nursing mothers once the leave period ends and has made creche facility mandatory in respect of establishments with 50 or more employees.