Major Australian Retailer offers Six weeks Paid Maternity Leave

Australian retail giant, Myer, today announced they were offering six weeks paid maternity leave for fulltime and part-time staff who had been with them for 18 months or longer.

Hooray! Finally a major employer of women has seen the value of offering this benefit to their highly valuable working mothers.

Myer spokesman Greg Travers, says "[It] is an additional benefit that we also think will enhance the return rates of women to employment," he said. "We have a growth portfolio going forward into the future that's going to mean we'll need more people."

This kind of benefit makes it easier to convince working mothers to return and encourages existing staff to stay.

The Federal Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek, has supported the Myer initiative. "It's got a very high proportion of female staff and I hope that businesses that haven't already got paid parental leave will think about following suit."

Well done Myer - and we both hope that many more businesses do the same!

Full article see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/27/2200286.htm?section=australia