Female Employees At EABL To Get 6 Months Maternity Leave

EABL Female employees get six months maternity leave.

According to the most recent Kenya Employment Act, a female employee is entitled to three months of maternity leave with full pay and a two-week paternity break for fathers. This 90 calendar days or three months calendar includes weekends and public holidays of not working or reporting on official duty. But East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL) will be giving its female employees a few more months into the maternity leave.

In line with the British parent company Diageo’s global policy for its workers, EABL announced that it has started rolling out the enhanced policy for both its male and female employees in the region as part of its campaign “to create a fully inclusive and diverse workforce”.

“We strongly believe that businesses play a significant role in shaping the future of society,” said EABL Group Managing Director Andrew Cowan

The policy, which offers quite generous packages for working parents, is expected to go live from July 1. Mothers and fathers prolonged periods of paid parental leave, regardless of how long they have worked at the company. Female employees at EABL could get up to six months paid maternity leave.

This is to enable employees to be able to thrive at work knowing they have some time off with their families without restrictions.

“The new policy offers female employees in EABL a minimum of 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. EABL is also setting a global minimum standard of four weeks paternity leave on full rate of pay in all markets” said EABL in a statement.

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 according to Diageo chief human resources officer Mairéad Nayager.

“The full details of each country-specific policy, application to non-wholly owned subsidiaries, and the timing of its roll-out will be shared in due course and is subject to local legal, board and regulatory requirements,” said Diageo in a statement.

Diageo had offered a minimum four-weeks paternity leave but a significant number of its businesses such as North America, Singapore and Russia have opted to give fathers the maximum 26 weeks, just like mothers.