Paid maternity leave? In retail? How oh-my-gosh is that?
Woolworths will give a total of eight weeks' paid leave with an initial six weeks and a further two after the woman returns to work. Unpaid leave will increase from one year to two.The decision will cover all its businesses including Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets, Big W, Dick Smith Electronics and Dan Murphy's. Eligible staff will be those who have two years' experience and are in permanent part or full-time positions.
The announcement follows moves by Aldi to offer 14 weeks' maternity leave at half pay; Myer has offered six weeks on full pay. Source
But there's a catch surely? Woolworths certainly is a very big employer:
| Total Employees Woolworths Limited Group | ||||||||||||||||
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My son being among them. But how many of these people are in fact, "permanent" or "part time" and have two years under their belt? They are apparently phrasing out casuals in order to reduce turnover and this no doubt is part of that policy shift. So it's all part of the carrot to stay loyal and stay on.
I'd think there'd be an opening there too for a wage campaign....
