KWAL announces new parental leave policy

Kenya Wine Agencies limited (KWAL) has reinforced its commitment to champion for women inclusivity at the work place with the unveiling of a new maternal policy.

In its latest policy women employees will now be allowed four months of maternity leave while men will see their paternity leave increased from two to 3 weeks.

The policy continues to highlight that in cases of medical emergencies like still birth, miscarriage and pre-term delivery, the mother will be given a leave of 6 weeks, 4 weeks and 3 months respectively

“In the unfortunate event, that a mother has a miscarriage during the third trimester of pregnancy or delivers a stillborn child she will be entitled to maternity leave for 6 weeks on full pay after the miscarriage or still birth. (Inclusive of Sick Leave) In some cases that a mother has a miscarriage before the third trimester of pregnancy, she will be entitled to maternity leave for 4 weeks on full pay after the miscarriage or still birth (Inclusive of Sick Leave) and thirdly in the event that a mother delivers a pre-term baby and is admitted in hospital, the mother will be given maternity leave for 3 months after discharge,” read the policy in part

This new development follows the launch of KWAL Women Chat Lounge that took place last year, an initiative that aims to help women discover their wings and create an enabling environment for KWALs’ female employees.

This quarterly program seeks to bring together all KWAL female employees in catch up sessions to discuss issues pertaining to their growth and development in the work place. To commemorate and sustain the conversation the program is integrated with other HR led initiatives such as training to gain useful skills, mentorship and coaching opportunities, reviewing of some internal Policies and provision of a Crèche facility at the KWAL Headquarters in Nairobi.

The All KWAL Women Further highlighting the fact that Women Rights and inclusivity is not a domestic affair but a business issue key in achieving sustainable economic progression. 

The highlights of the revised policy include;

The other addition to the Parental Leave Policy is on adoptive leave. Where a female employee adopts a child she will be entitled to leave as follows;

• Less than 2 years of age, an employee shall be entitled to 3 consecutive months of leave inclusive of public holidays.
• Above 2 years of age but below 13 years of age, the employee shall be entitled to 1 month of leave inclusive of public holidays.

KWAL also included an addition on surrogate parents, as follows;

• In the event that the employee is the commissioning parent, she shall be entitled to 3 consecutive months of leave on full pay. (inclusive of public holidays)
• In the event that employee is the surrogate in a surrogate motherhood agreement, she will be entitled to 4 consecutive months of leave on full pay. (inclusive of public holidays)

KWAL also included new additions on work place health and safety for expectant mothers. These are role based and were highlighted as follows;

Sales teams:

• Work from the distributor from 36 weeks supported by a reliever to go on route.

• Get a support (casual) to assist in the field from 30 weeks on matters such as listings and wall poster placement.

Factory/Production based staff:

• Exclusion from lifting jobs and offer support staff for standing jobs to assist during the pregnancy

• Exclusion from night shift from 30 weeks and for 4 months post return to work.

• Factory staff to proceed for maternity leave from 38 weeks.

Office staff:

• Where work environment allows, consider work from home arrangement from 32 weeks and an expectant employee will not perform any task that includes hazardous chemicals

About The Author