OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2015. Nestle in the US has announced that it will become a founding member of the ‘Working Parent Support Coalition’ – a group of businesses that are implementing progressive policies to improve support for working parents.

The announcement was made at the 2015 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting – an event that brings together global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

As a member of the coalition, Nestle will conduct an internal analysis to understand the impact of its new global Maternity Protection Policy on female employee retention. The company’s sites across the US will track the retention rates of female employees and the number of female employees who take advantage of the new maternity policy. The information, which will be shared with members of the coalition, will be used to assess the impact of maternity leave policies in improving gender balance in the workplace.

Estimated to be one of the most progressive programmes of its kind in the industry, Nestle’s new policy provides employees a minimum of 14 weeks paid parental leave, the right to extend their parental leave up to six months and guaranteed access to breastfeeding rooms during working hours in head offices and sites with more than 50 female employees.