Multinational companies are currently displaying a trend to offer their employees maternity leave rights that significantly exceed minimum requirements set under statute.
Earlier this year, Accenture, the multinational management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, doubled its maternity leave benefits in the US so that their full-time and part-time employees are now entitled to up to 16 weeks of paid leave. In the US, qualifying female employees are only guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
On May 1st 2015 the company increased the amount of paid maternity leave granted to full-time and part-time employees in India to 22 weeks. This is considerably beyond the current minimum statutory requirement of 12 weeks. Under the company maternity leave policy, employees also receive additional rights — such as the right to four weeks of paid leave when they suffer from an illness directly related to their pregnancy.
Most recently the company announced that full-time and part-time employees in Argentina will be entitled to five months of paid maternity leave. Under Argentinian law, employees are entitled to a minimum of three months‘ paid maternity leave.
The multinational telecommunications company Vodafone recently became the first multinational company to offer a global harmonised maternity policy to cover its employees in Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US — regardless of local statutory requirements, which differ considerably around the world. Under the policy, female employees are entitled to at least 16 weeks of fully-paid maternity leave and, furthermore, will be paid a full-time wage for working 30-hours per week during the first six months after their return to work.
For more information about minimum statutory maternity leave requirements around the world, please see our comparative guide on the topic in our HR Knowledgebase.