Accenture in the Philippines has increased its maternity leave benefit to 120 calendar days of paid leave, doubling the statutory requirement of 60 days for a normal delivery.

Lito Tayag, country managing director, Accenture in the Philippines, commented: “Accenture recognises the valuable contribution and sacrifice of working mothers, who need more time off from work to focus on caring for their newborn.”

Effective September 1, this new benefit makes Accenture one of the first companies in the Philippines to put this into effect.

It adds to existing benefits for new parents, such as adoption leave, lactation breaks, maternity care education programme, and the fit to work certification.

This year has seen the company making vast changes to its maternity policies, with recent changes in India, Argentina, and the United States.

In May, Accenture extended paid maternity leave for full and part-time employees in Argentina to five months, paying full compensation for two additional months beyond the three-month statutory requirement.

Women account for more than 40% of Accenture employees in Argentina, including nearly half of the leadership team.

ALSO READ: Is Marissa Mayer setting a bad example with two-week maternity leave?

In the same month this year, full-time and part-time women employees in India as well saw maternity-leave benefits going up to 22 weeks of paid leave, up from the statutory requirement of 12 weeks.

The policy also allows employees in India who don’t have enough accrued vacation time, but want additional time off beyond the maternity leave, to take unpaid leave for another 12 weeks.

In addition, the company also doubled its maternity leave benefits for US employees, by offering up to 16 weeks of paid leave in March this year.

That policy also offers up to eight weeks of paid parental leave after the birth or adoption of a new child for other primary caregivers and enhances the amount of paid leave for secondary caregivers.

ALSO READ: Tech giants woo new mothers through enhanced maternity leave policies

Image: Shutterstock