Fine Hygienic Holding, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of hygienic paper products, has been working and innovating tirelessly in recent years to provide the most inclusive and welcoming environment possible for all its employees. Following to a series of progressive diversity initiatives and awareness campaigns, it has become a beacon for gender equality within its sector, and with the latest update to its maternity policy, it has set the stage for women at the company to shine the brightest.
No woman should have to choose between having a career and starting a family, and from the beginning of May, Fine’s female employees won’t have to. The newly updated policy guarantees 16 weeks of maternity leave, paid in full, to any woman at the company who is due to give birth, allowing them plenty of time for childbirth, childcare, and to make a full recovery. New mothers will also have the choice to extend their maternity leave for an additional 16 weeks, unpaid, in addition to the beneficial new Return to Work Policy where they can choose to return at 100% “Full Time” or part time up to one year at 60% or 80% work week.
The benefitsfor working mothers at Fine go beyond simply allowing greater leave at time of birth: they extend to a daily half-hour workday reduction and breastfeeding breaks, the option to work from home one day per week andshifting to a permanent part-time basis – all in addition to the complete support of management and the company to make the process as easy as possible. All female employees at the company are also provided an additional day of leave per month to ease discomfort arising from menstruation.
“At Fine, we are ready and willing to do everything we can for the women at our company,” said James Michael Lafferty, CEO of Fine Hygienic Holding. “We want to go above and beyond what is expected of us. Our updated maternity leave policy provides more paid leave than the amount recommended by the International Labour Organization, and thisstep putsFineat the forefront of progressive companies not only in the MENA region but globally. We want to create the perfect environment for all the women at our company – those who are mothers, and those who aren’t – because we believe that if we take care of our people, then our business will take care of itself.”
The company’s extensive gender equality policies offer support not just to the working mothers, but to all the women at the company, ensuring an environment that welcomes and accepts them. These policies are part of the culture of diversity built at the company, which includes and applies not only to women, but to all employees regardless ofrace, creed, religion, or sexual orientation.