EMCOR UK has announced one of the industry’s leading parental leave policies with effect from January 2022. It includes 26 weeks’ full pay for mothers and 6 weeks’ full pay for fathers.
The new policy was developed by EMCOR UK’s Gender Focus Group – part of its Creating Balance Programme which aims to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can achieve their potential and feel welcomed and respected. The Gender Focus Group conducted extensive research both internally and externally to ensure that its new policy was not just market leading but one of the best across all industries and to ensure it comprehensively responded to employee feedback.
EMCOR UK’s new parental leave policy includes:
Maternity Pay including adoptive mothers
26 weeks’ full pay, plus 13 weeks’ statutory maternity pay and 13 weeks’ unpaid leave
Paternity Pay including adoptive fathers
6 weeks’ full pay (4 weeks of those to be taken in the first year of the child’s life)
Pregnancy Loss
2 weeks’ paid leave for both parents for the loss of a baby (including termination)
IVF Flexible Working
Accommodate flexible working requests for parents undergoing IVF treatment so that annual leave does not need to be used for this purpose
Dad Pad
Paid access to the Dad Pad online support networks for new fathers.
Family Bereavement
2 weeks’ paid leave for loss of immediate family members
Maria de Cabo Ramos, Chair of EMCOR UK’s Gender Focus Group, said: “As a group we were passionate about developing a new parental leave policy that was one of the best in our industry and that was inclusive and supportive for all parents and the different aspects of parenthood. It was an amazing team effort where we all worked together to achieve our goal and we were absolutely thrilled when our proposals were approved by the executive leadership team.”
Dylan Wickenden, Executive Director, Human Resources, EMCOR UK, said: “Our purpose is to create a better world at work and this includes supporting all parents in the workplace and ensuring that we have a market leading policy in place. We recognise the importance of successful work life balance and creating an environment where our employees can successfully manage their parental and professional responsibilities. The Gender Focus Group did an excellent job to make EMCOR UK a better place to work for all future parents.”
The new parental leave policy is effective from January 2022 for all employees with two years’ service.
