EMPLOYEES of Scotiabank Guyana will now benefit from increases in maternity and paternity leave, the bank announced on Wednesday.
In a press release, the bank said that the enhanced parental leave policy introduced in August 2022 includes several major changes, which makes it the first in the local industry to introduce them.

The maternity leave has moved from 13 weeks to 16 weeks and paternity leave has moved from five days to four weeks. The changes also include eligibility for adoption and gestational surrogacy.

“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 employee physical, mental, and financial health – including when employees are growing their families,” the bank’s Country Manager, Nafeeza Gaffoor said according to the release.

She further said, “This change has come about as a result of a new global standard for parental leave across all Scotiabank’s markets provides a consistent vision on how employees should be supported when welcoming a new child, regardless of which country they are located.”

Additionally, the bank has implemented some other actions recently as part of its commitment to employees.

A fully virtually 24/7 LifeSpeak Total Wellbeing Platform was launch to provide employees with easily accessible tools to increase the wellbeing support available to both employees and their immediate families. There was also leadership development through iLEAD – Scotiabank’s global leadership development programme which helps to enhance the skills of our people leaders.
The bank said it is is also advancing gender equality in the workplace.

“We are committed to being an inclusive employer, an advocate for women and to removing barriers to succeeding at work. Women make up 72 per cent of our employee base and 66 per cent of our leadership team are women,” the release added.