Let's talk about leave...
Our time away from work can be just as important as our time at work. Edison recently announced a lot of changes to our leave policies – just another way to walk the walk when it comes to our social purpose! We believe in our power to create positive change for people, brands and organisations. Our updated policies promote flexible working, work-life balance and also gender equality through our Bloody Good menstrual leave and super paid through maternity leave initiatives...
Salary Maintenance through paid maternity leave period
Currently employees are entitled to paid maternity leave by the government to the value of the minimum wage. We feel it is only fair that people receive their full salary for the paid maternity leave period, so for the paid maternity leave period of 20 weeks (from July 1st 2023), we will pay the gap between what the government pays, and what employee’s earn.
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Paid Superannuation for Maternity leave
The government has recently ruled that this is an unnecessary condition of employment, but given the inequality in super balances for women vs men we disagree.
A report published in 2021 showed the average retiring superannuation balance for males was 270K, whilst for women it is 157k, or 42% less. Contributing to this is time in the work force, pay inequality, and unpaid maternity leave.
By paying superannuation at the standard rates (10.5% from FY23) for maternity leave, we can at least help offset this imbalance a little.
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Bloody Good (menstrual) leave
The Edison Agency strives to create and maintain a work environment that brings menstruation to light. The purpose of the Menstrual Leave Policy is to de-stigmatize discussion of menstruation in the workplace. It also supports employees’ different needs during their menstrual cycle.
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Work From Anywhere leave
With ‘virtual engagement’ being more accepted than ever, remote working is now the norm rather than the exception. We want to support this by allowing team members to ‘work from anywhere’ for up to 4 weeks year. There are certain requirements, but in short it allows people to not attend the studio for an approved period whilst working.
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Do good leave
Under the design for good banner, we fully support team members wanting to volunteer time for NFP causes that align to the Edison values. We don’t feel its fair for this to only be on personal time, so we are willing to give paid leave for up to 3 days per year for team members to do volunteer work.
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Recharge Weekends
We have been exploring the option of a 4 day full time working week, but with our clients operating for 5 days a week, are finding this hard to execute. The compromise being, we are introducing 4 extra long, long weekends (called recharge weekends) that will make 4 weekends a year into 4 day breaks that the studio will be closed for. Giving everyone 4 decent sized mini breaks a year, allowing actual annual leave to be for enjoying and experiencing, rather than recovering from a hard work period.
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June 2022
