Tesco, the UK’s largest private-sector employer, has granted colleagues who have a Special Guardianship Order to care for relatives’ children equal rights with colleagues who adopt – giving them both 26 weeks’ leave on full pay.
The kinship leave, which will apply to grandparents or other relatives who take on a child of a family member, is intended to help kinship carers to be able stay in the workforce, while managing their extra responsibilities.
The new policy, which makes the grocer one of the first UK retailers to support these carers, is among a raft of family-friendly policies Tesco announced that will benefit more than 300,000 colleagues.
Tesco also announced:
- Improved maternity leave to 26 weeks with full pay
- Up to 12 weeks paid neonatal leave
- Fertility leave extended to partners as well as birth mothers of up to 5 days paid leave per treatment cycle
- Adoption leave improved to 26 weeks on full pay, and
- Paid leave for two weeks for the loss of a baby pre 24 weeks of pregnancy
There are 152,000 children in the UK growing up in kinship care. The pioneering new policy will apply to Tesco colleagues who have obtained an SGO from a family court, which allows a child to be brought up by people such as grandparents, relatives or family friends while maintaining contact with birth parents.
Tesco is also introducing paid neonatal leave for the first time, ahead of Government legislation due to come into force in 2025. The retailer will allow colleagues whose child has been unwell and spent seven days or more in hospital during their first 28 days since birth, to extend maternity or shared parental leave by up to 12 weeks on full pay.
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