Tata Teleservices to give 6-month maternity leave for increasing women workforce

MUMBAI: Tata Teleservices has increased its maternity leave policy to six months paid leave and an additional six months of half day halfpay option to increase the number of its women workforce, said chief human resources officer Richa Tripathi.

The Tata group telecom company, currently under arbitration with feuding equity partner NTT DoCoMo, plans to double its women workforce by 2020, and over time, strike a nearly equal ratio between men and women.

“We are committed to promoting gender diversity and increasing the number of women employees,” said Tripathi . At the moment though, only 9.5% of the telecom company’s staff comprises women, and about 4-5% of them take maternity leave annually. A part of the new policy is also to bump up medical cover for women to opt for IVF, or in vitro fertilization, when they choose to have a family. Tripathi said the company is still working on formulating a paternity leave policy.

“We have observed that women employees bring in rich and diverse perspectives to the workplace.” The company has hired a Chief Diversity Officer to bring more women into leadership roles. As part of the initiative, Tripathi said the company has Second Career Internship Programme for mothers returning to the workforce.

“We’ve seen an encouraging response to this.” Tata Teleservices is among the trailing telecom operators, and over the years, has been losing ground as its parent group withdrew funding expansion. With a debt of over Rs 28,000 crore and inadequate operating profit, experts reckon the company is a rich target for acquisition.