In an effort to further support its employees, Scotiabank Guyana has rolled out an expanded parental leave policy that will see mothers getting at least 16 weeks of maternity leave while fathers will get up to one month of leave.
In a statement on Wednesday, Scotiabank explained that these enhanced benefits were introduced in August 2022.
Scotiabank Guyana Country Manager Nafeeza Gaffoor
These major changes include maternity leave moving from 13 weeks to 16 weeks and paternity leave increasing from five days to four weeks. Additionally, systems have been put in place now for persons doing adoption and/or gestational surrogacy to also be eligible for parental leave.
With the implementation of these increased maternity and paternity leave for employees, Scotiabank is now the first in the local industry to introduce such measures.
“Our people are our most important asset. We believe that for our people to bring their very best selves to work, we have an important role to play in supporting employees’ physical, mental, and financial health – including when employees are growing their families,” Scotiabank Guyana Country Manager Nafeeza Gaffoor commented.
She went on to say that “This change has come about as a result of a new global standard for parental leave across all Scotiabank’s markets [that] provides a consistent vision on how employees should be supported when welcoming a new child, regardless of which country they are located.”
The Canada-based Scotiabank has been implementing measures to improve conditions for its employees. Some of the other recent actions taken as part of Scotiabank’s commitment to employees include the launch of the LifeSpeak Total Well-being Platform that aims at providing employees with easily-accessible tools to increase the well-being support available to both employees and their immediate families. LifeSpeak is a fully-virtual 24/7 platform.
Another initiative is Leadership Development through iLEAD, which is Scotiabank’s global leadership development programme that helps to enhance the skills of its people leaders.
Moreover, advancing gender equality in the workplace is also a major measure being undertaken by the Bank. Scotiabank said it was committed to being an inclusive employer, an advocate for women and to removing barriers to success at work. As a matter of fact, women make up about 72 per cent of the Bank’s employee base, and about 66 per cent of its leadership team are women. (G8)
