This startup's maternity leave policy is the best thing to happen to working women in India

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This startup's maternity leave policy is the best thing to happen to working women in India
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Like any other startup striving to make work fun for its employees, UrbanLadder, the online furniture website too does offer the usual perks to their employees.

“We have free food for all our employees. There’s free breakfast, and lunch. We have fruits at 4 pm and snacks later,” says Rajeev Srivatsa, co-founder and COO, UrbanLadder.

But, what really sets the startup apart is their parental benefits.

Srivatsa claims that almost 38% of their employees are women and thus it is imperative for them as a brand to undertake policies that help women at the workplace and the chief among them is their maternity benefits.

As of April, the company has extended its maternity leave to twenty six weeks for their employees. That is a whopping six months.
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Additionally, they also have the option of being able to take an extra three months of part-time work that the company hopes will act as a transitional period for all involved- the new mom, baby, the family and UrbanLadder.

This startup's maternity leave policy is the best thing to happen to working women in India

During this period, employees can choose to work upto 5 hours at an equivalent pay basis or opt for an additional three months of unpaid leave.

Infact, these benefits also extend to those employees who choose to adopt or have surrogates.

According to the company, the aim behind this move is to ensure that women don’t feel the need to take a break from their careers and then end up not returning to work full time.
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“We understand the difficulty in striking a balance between motherhood and work,” says the company.

UrbanLadder’s maternity policy even beats social networking giant Facebook’s rather generous policy. As of the moment, news mothers in the country are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave from Facebook.

Image credit: Indiatimes