One of the world’s largest bunkering companies has extended parental leave to 20 weeks to all of its 1,600 employees worldwide.
Danish family-owned Bunker Holding said the move is designed to bring “stronger workplace equality between genders to the industry”.
“Whether you’ve just become a mother or a father, Bunker Holding Group has as of August 2022 extended a 20-week paid parental leave to all employees globally, boosting the time parents can spend with their new-born child,” the company said.
Pernille Gaesdal Beck, group executive HR partner, said the bunker industry, being rather conservative, has historically viewed parental leave as maternity leave.
“At Bunker Holding we have set out to change this, and seeing as 72% of the workforce is male, this new policy is going to benefit a lot of new fathers, who previously may not have felt they could prioritise family at the cost of office time,” she said.
“Our goal is this will promote equal opportunities for female workers as well, as increasingly their male counterparts in the office too will enjoy an extended parental leave away from their work life.”
Bunker Holdings said the revised policy is already benefiting men, who now no longer suffer a pay cut during their parental leave.
Michael Ekdal Jacobsen, general manager of Bunker Holding’s Singapore office and who will soon be going on parental leave, sees the initiative as positive.
“I think it is such a strong move that Bunker Holding is now offering 20 weeks of paid parental leave for both mother and father,” he said.
“Especially for people sitting outside Denmark, this is very much out of the ordinary. For me personally, I will definitely jump on the opportunity to increase my leave.”
Jacobsen added that as well as receiving full pay during parental leave, pooled bonuses of the offices are continuously awarded to the employee, minimising the cost and increasing the incentive to take leave in full.
Bunker Holding said the new policy builds on its recent efforts on sustainability reporting, increasing its commitment not only to the environment but also the diversity, equality, and inclusion agenda.
“Adding the parental leave policy … is a natural extension of our commitment to the diversity, equality and inclusion agenda outlined in our recently published sustainability report,” said Beck.
“For the past several years, Bunker Holding Group has gone through a modernisation process, wanting to stay the best workplace in the industry, helping us attract the qualified labour force of tomorrow.”
