Volvo bats for gender equality, introduces 6 months’ paid parental leave

This benefit can be availed by all employees who have been on the rolls for at least a year

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Volvo Cars has announced six months of paid parental leave, which can be availed by all those employees from its 40,000-strong workforce who have served the Company for at least one year. It can be availed by all legally registered parents, including adoptive, foster and surrogate parents, as well as non-birth parents in same-sex couples.

This move, which is quite rare in the global automotive industry, is aimed at upholding the Swedish auto company’s commitment to gender equality and drawing quality talent. In fact Volvo is not the first Swedish company to offer such a paid parental leave policy to its staff. Spotify and Ikea have also done so in the past.
Starting April 2021, employees who are at least a year old in the Company will have the right to enjoy parental leave at 80 percent of their salary. The leave can be availed whenever they want to in the first three years post birth of their child.

Based on the country’s generous national parental leave policy, this benefit allows parents to share 480 days of leave at 80 percent of their salary, not exceeding the limit of about $4,500 (3,800 euros) a month. This encourages fathers to help their spouses significantly in taking care of the infant in the early years.

With about 75 per cent of its workforce comprising men, Volvo Cars has been trying out this policy for almost two years now, at its offices in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, where 46 per cent of the applications received for the leave were from fathers.
Considering this a valuable investment that will stand the Company in good stead, Volvo hopes to reap positive benefits in the long run and also attract quality talent as it becomes known as an attractive place to work in.

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