Lion, an Australia based global beverage company, recently announced a new gender neutral policy, providing flexible equal paid parental leave. The policy ensures twelve weeks of paid leave and an additional six weeks of unpaid leave, to parents irrespective of gender. Lion notably invested $6Mn into its gender neutral initiative. The said policy is effective from October 1, 2021.
Reportedly, fathers in Australia generally have not been using the government's Dad and Partner Pay scheme (DAPP), majorly because it pays merely two weeks’ minimum wage. Moreover, according to WGEA, female employees are lagging behind in terms of pay by an average of $13,000 annually. The latest move by Lion and other leading companies is to bridge the glaring gender pay and leave a gap.
Commenting on the gender neutral and anti-discriminatory initiative, Alicia Purtell, People & Culture Director, Lion, revealed the vision and purpose behind executing unbiased policies. The new gender neutral policies have been formulated to address the reluctance of male employees to take parental leave or hesitation by spouses if they both can take leaves when expecting a child.. Purtell mentioned the flexibility to take leaves within a period of two years when expecting a child.
She further said, "Removing any titles that are hindering the mindset around taking leave, so the primary and secondary career labels. Once you take away those barriers by being more flexible, and then you take away the labels, you have a perfect combo because you’re saying anyone can take it at any time. That is really, really powerful to change the whole system".
The company relies on well-designed business models along with cultural strategies, the idea of which is to chalk out discriminatory practices, and have a dynamic and unbiased workplace, determining salaries by pay band rather than gender, leadership and inclusion, defined REM structures and other gender-neutral policies.
“You've also got to focus on the cause, not the symptoms. The gender gap and parental labels are really symptoms, but the cause is gender discrimination. Identify all the moments that are getting in the way of equal pay for equal work," Purtell added.