RBS extends maternity benefit to 26 weeks

British lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) today increased the maternity benefits to 26 weeks, a move aimed at retaining its 14,000-strong workforce in India. The paid maternity leave has been extended to 180 days from the present 84 days, while paid paternity leave has been doubled to 10 days, it said in a statement. The move is aimed at retaining talent and enable employees to reach their full potential, so that they can balance work and day-to-day life.

A slew of lenders, including State Bank of India under its chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI Bank and RBS' peer Citi have revised such benefits in the recent past. "It is hugely important to us that our employees feel supported during key events in their life by organisation," said Pankaj Phatarphod, RBS Managing Director and country head of services. Even though RBS has been drawing down on its presence in the consumer-facing businesses in the country, it employs a good number of people in the back offices located at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.

The Indian back offices support over 24 million customers globally, in areas of risk, finance and technology, operations payments, and transformation, the statement said. The Union Labour Ministry is expected to introduce a new provision in the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, to increase maternity leave for women from the present 12 weeks to 26 weeks. The government also wants to mandate all establishments with 30 women or 50 employees to ensure employees have access to creches in the vicinity.

The Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 entitles women to 12 weeks of maternity benefit and employers are liable to pay full wages for the period of leave. The country has one of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world. Forty-six percent of children under the age of five are underweight and 48 per cent are stunted, according to the government figures from 2005/06.

Child malnutrition is an underlying cause of death for three million children around the world every year - nearly half of all child deaths - with most of them dying from preventable illnesses due to weak immune systems, says the UN Children's Fund. Yet only 47 percent of Indian mothers exclusively breastfeed for the first six months compared with 70 percent in Nepal and 76 percent in Sri Lanka.