• Major Australian employers including Commonwealth Bank, KPMG, and Macquarie Group have signed up to a new family-friendly policy framework.
• Family Friendly Workplaces, launched Tuesday by UNICEF Australia and Parents At Work, asks participating companies to go above and beyond minimum requirements.
• Certified companies are asked to enshrine remote work policies, provide flexible parental leave, and apply superannuation contributions to that time away from work.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Major Australian employers including Commonwealth Bank, KPMG, and Macquarie Group have have signed up to a new family-friendly work initiative, which advocates say will boost workplace participation and provide flexibility to employees who care for loved ones.

Family Friendly Workplaces, launched Tuesday by UNICEF Australia and Parents At Work, promises a framework of family-friendly workplace policies which go above and beyond minimum government requirements.

The framework calls for paid parental leave policies to be made available to all employees with children, and flexible enough to support those who experience pregnancy loss or post-natal depression.

Signatories are also encouraged to provide superannuation contributions to those leave allowances, echoing a policy proposal which was ultimately shirked by last week’s Federal Budget announcement.

Carers are to be provided support and access to paid or unpaid leave, the framework states, with breastfeeding parents to be afforded paid breaks and access to secure and appropriate feeding spaces.

Family Friendly Workplaces also takes stock of how COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns and the rise of remote work have impacted working families, for better and for worse.

Flexible working plans should be created and applicable to all employees, the guidelines state, with technology provided to workers who choose to participate outside of the traditional working environment.

And in a sign that companies are yet to fully trust workers who fulfill their duties off-site, leaders are to provide flexible working conditions without sidelining the employees who use them.

Citing a survey of 1000 Australians, Parents at Work CEO Emma Walsh said 41% of respondents believed their dedication would come under question if they worked remotely — even if such policies make life easier for parents or carers.

Creating the Family Friendly Workplaces framework was important to embed the transformative changes to work brought about by the pandemic, Walsh added.

“The tension between work and family life is no longer something government nor employers can afford to ignore, and if reduced, there is a compelling return on investment that benefits business, individuals and the wider community,” she said.

AGL, APRA, Deloitte, HSBC, Microsoft, and QBE are among the Australian companies to have signed up for certification under the new guidelines.

The announcement comes at an inflection point for work in Australia, as employers cling to the flexibility of pandemic-era remote work while eyeing a return to the office.

Increasing the workforce participation of women, who perform the bulk of unpaid care work in Australia, was also a key theme in the government’s $3.4 billion Women’s Budget Statement.

Some $1.7 billion will be directed to expanded childcare subsidies through the Federal Budget, a measure which advocates have described as helpful for some working families but well short of what is required to bolster workplace participation.

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