In order to promote gender equality, the Swedish car manufacturer Volvo Cars will offer, from April 1, a six-month parental leave with 80% compensation to its 40,000 employees around the world, which they can distribute as they wish over the three years following the birth of the child.
This policy, open to employees with one year of seniority, is inspired by existing Swedish legislation where the parental leave policy is among the most generous on the Old Continent: 480 days, i.e. nearly 16 months to be shared between two parents.
Encourage more men to take the leave
“The most important thing is that we offer the same to every parent and that we encourage more men to take parental leave,” said the manufacturer's human resources manager, Hanna Fager, adding, “Of course, that is going to cost us money, but we see it as a long term investment.
It's the people who make the difference so we need to continue to attract talent.
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Volvo, which currently employs around 75% men, has carried out a pilot program in Europe, the Middle East and Africa since 2019, testing the measure with its salespeople: 46% of leave was taken by fathers.
"It's clearly rare in the automotive industry but also geographically: we have a lot of employees in China and the United States for whom this will be a big step forward compared to what they benefit from today", continues Hanna Fager. .
Before Volvo, other Swedish groups implemented long-term parental leave for their employees, such as the world leader in online music Spotify, which had already announced in 2015 a measure similar to that of Volvo.
For its part, Ikea has also announced paid parental leave programs of several months in India and the United States in particular.
In France, the boss of the PS Olivier Faure recently proposed a compulsory and equal parental leave of 9 weeks.