Vodafone introduces unitary maternity leave standard across all its divisions

Telecom operator Vodafone Romania has adopted a minimum compulsory standard concerning the maternity leave across all its divisions.

By the end of 2015, women who work across Vodafone’s 30 divisions located in Africa, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States, will receive a fully paid maternity leave of 16 weeks, or even more if the law is favorable, as well as the opportunity to work full-time 30 hours a week for six months if they return within six months since the baby is born.

The Romanian law stipulates 126 days for maternity leave which already covers the benefits included in the minimum unitary standard introduced by Vodafone. The new group policy will bring benefits to those Romanian employees who choose to work at Vodafone in other countries where the group is active.

“The law in this field differs from one country to the other, the regulations in Romania being among the most generous in the world. The real benefits for our employees consists in a common unitary standard valid across all countries and accessible to all our colleagues in Romania who wish to work in other countries at Vodafone,” said Ana Alexe, Director, Customer Operations, Vodafone Romania.

Women hold 47 percent of management positions at Vodafone Romania and represent 53 percent of the total number of employees.

“Too many talented women decide to stop working because they must make a difficult choice between taking care of their newborn and keeping their career. Our new global policy of granting maternity leave will support annually over 1,000 Vodafone employees who are working in countries with deficient law or who totally lack laws that regulate this. Women represent 35 percent of our employees globally and have 21 percent of the positions in the management team. We believe that by introducing this new global policy, we will reduce this gap,” said Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group Chief Executive.

Otilia Haraga