Breaking the Bias:
Amber announces change to parental leave policy

On Wednesday 8th April, Amber announced a massive change to its parental leave policy.

So, what have we done?

Firstly, we’ve made our policy more inclusive, changing the language we use from ‘maternity’, ‘paternity’ and ‘adoption’ leave to ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ caregiver leave.

Becoming a parent is a magical time, no matter the route you take to make it happen. The journey to becoming a parent isn't always the same for everyone, and we want to recognise that.

This change in policy shows our appreciation for the different paths people take to becoming parents, aligns with our B Corp values, and removes a level of bias by not discriminating against gender.

We’ve also enhanced our policy, putting us in the ‘excellent’ category for both primary and secondary caregiver leave.
What does 'excellent' look like?

Our new policy for primary caregiver leave will now be enhanced to 26 weeks leave fully paid; and secondary caregiver leave will be enhanced to 4 weeks fully paid.

What inspired us?

Last International Women’s Day, we asked the company to vote, via a poll, on which pledge they would like Amber to commit to.

The pledge that won was to: “Review our parental leave policy and assess (a) competitiveness and (b) how this could be enhanced.”

Are there any additional policy updates?

We appreciate that the whole journey to becoming a parent isn’t always easy; therefore, we are introducing policies to support those going through IVF as well as recognising pregnancy loss before the statutory 24 weeks – as we recognise that every loss is a loss.

What’s next?

We were proud to announce this set of policy changes as part of our International Women’s Day celebrations.
After our internal announcement, we asked our employees what they would like to see Amber commit to next as a way of helping to #BreakTheBias.

The team will now submit their suggestions and later vote on what our next pledge will be.