Tesco Bengaluru Extends Maternity Leave to 22 Weeks

Bengaluru, November 15, 2016: Tesco Bengaluru, the technology and retail operations team for Tesco worldwide, recently announced enhancements to its maternity leave policy. The policy stipulates maternity leave for women colleagues to paid leave of 22 weeks from the previous 12 weeks and an additional 1 month for illness arising out of pregnancy. In effect from November 01, 2016, the policy will also benefit all women colleagues who are currently on maternity leave.

The company’s initiative to alter its existing policy comes much before the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill that has been slated to be passed by the Lok Sabha. The move is aimed at ensuring wellness for both mother and child, further boosting a healthy and productive work environment as well as emotional upliftment of the company’s colleagues.

Colleagues who have opted for alternative routes of motherhood like surrogacy and adoption will also reap the benefits of this thoughtful policy and can avail 22 weeks of paid maternity leave, among the first of its kind in the industry. New mothers can also take an Extended Maternity Leave (EML) that supports an additional 6 months unpaid leave over and above the Maternity Leave of 22 weeks. Women colleagues also have bandwidth to take 6 weeks leave for miscarriage and medical termination of pregnancy and 2 weeks for a tubectomy. Tesco Bengaluru’s commitment to its colleagues’ well-being is reflected not just in its policy for new mothers, but also new fathers. The paternity leave has also been extended from 5 to 10 days.

Announcing the changes, Krity Sharma, Head – People, Tesco Bengaluru said, “Every year many colleagues welcome new members into their families. When it comes to parenting, we want new parents to have the best possible care and feel fully supported, so that they can enjoy this significant phase of their lives. Not only does our augmented maternity and paternity leaves allow new parents to spend time at home, but also transition back to work in a more effective manner”.

Providing a holistic option for its entire family, Tesco Bengaluru has remodelled its in-house crèche facilities and have tied up with external crèches for exclusive discounts as well. Keeping pace with its colleagues’ well-being, Tesco Bengaluru has partnered with various hospitals to provide discounted maternity-related health check-ups and have established an Employee Assistance Program that provides counselling on topics such as - pre-natal anxiety and post-natal depression, for colleagues having a family.

Other benefits included under the improved maternity leave policy are increased maternity cover of INR 40-50,000 for normal delivery and INR 50-60,000 for C-section, and infertility treatment covered up to INR 20,000.