The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has introduced a gender-neutral parental leave policy for the benefit of all employees
According tho JSE, their employees now qualify for a period of four months fully paid parental leave, regardless of their gender in accordance with the new policy. This announcement was made on Monday.
“Our society is ever-evolving and companies should adapt to these changes,” says Donald Khumalo, its human resources director.
“We can never achieve diversity in its true sense when a critical component of diversity such as inclusion remains a pipe dream. It is with this in mind that we have revised all our policies to ensure that they are gender-neutral and in line with an inclusive society that we operate in.”
Khumalo said the gender-neutral policy helps place JSE as an employer of choice in the financial services sector, as well as a people-centric organisation, fostering a “healthy working environment that drives increased employee engagement and high-performing teams, both of which are perfect ingredients for retaining and attracting new talent”.
He also added that the move is in line with the UN Sustainable development Goals 17 which can also be achieved by eradicating policies that perpetuate gender bias and stereotyping
This new policy allows all JSE’s new parents to take parental leave to spend time with their newborn or adopted baby.
Parents who have achieved successful surrogacy also qualify for the parental leave.
