Vodafone Ireland says it is now offering full surrogacy parental leave after announcing a slight increase in sales in its latest quarterly figures.
The move will entail 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave for “primary” carers, in line with the Maternity Leave Policy. 16 weeks of fully paid leave is offered to the infant’s “non-parturient” or “non-primary caregiver.”
Surrogacy is currently being debated among Irish politicians as more and more people travel to countries like the US, Mexico and Ukraine to avail the service.
Vodafone has also introduced 10 days paid leave for fertility treatment and two days paid leave for the partners of people undergoing fertility treatment. And the telecoms giant has also introduced 10 days of paid leave for those affected by a pregnancy loss before the 24-week deadline, while full parental or maternity leave applies after that 24-week date.
The steps have been implemented “to give people the time and flexibility they need when undergoing fertility treatment, surrogacy and pregnancy loss,” said Vodafone Ireland CEO Anne O’Leary.
Meanwhile, Vodafone Ireland’s financial results showed quarterly service revenue up 6.4 percent annually to €210 million. It also saw a slight increase in its fixed-line broadband subscriber base, which now stands at 313,000.
And the total mobile customer base increased by 3.7 percent.
However, while the usage rate of Vodafone’s mobile data customers increased by 35.2 per cent, Vodafone Ireland banned customers from its “completely unlimited” mobile data offer because they were using too much data. The move is allowed under Ireland’s competition and advertising rules, as the terms ‘unlimited’ and ‘fully unlimited’ don’t apply in a way that requires the service to provide unlimited data.
Source: independent