Epiroc employees around the globe will now receive a minimum of 12 weeks of paid parental leave after the Swedish mining and infrastructure solutions company announced the roll-out of the policy throughout the organisation worldwide.

Epiroc said its new “gender-less policy”, called “When life transforms”, applies to all new mothers and fathers, including same-sex, surrogate and adoptive parents working in all its branches worldwide. It aims at “fostering an even more inclusive and diverse culture”, it added.

The leave can be taken anytime within the first year of parenthood, the company added in a statement. Epiroc, based in Stockholm, Sweden, has around 17 000 employees around the world.

Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s president and CEO, said: “At Epiroc we want to accelerate the transformation towards a more sustainable industry. One important part of this transformation is the focus on inclusion and diversity. We want to create a culture that supports equal parenting by giving every new parent an opportunity to spend more time with their child and balance career and family responsibilities.”

The new policy applies to all Epiroc employees worldwide, the statement detailed, adding that many countries currently have local standards that are more beneficial than the 12 weeks, “which will of course then override this policy”.

However, in several countries, parental leave can be significantly shorter, and in many places, fathers have no parental leave at all; now they will be covered by this global policy.

The policy will be rolling out in Epiroc’s local entities around the world during the first half of this year, the statement revealed.

Nadim Penser, Epiroc’s senior vice president, Brand & Communication, Human Resources and SHEQ, said: “Our new parental leave policy gives all colleagues around the world who are new parents a guaranteed minimum 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with their new child and adjust to their new role in life.

“We believe this will be a valuable benefit both for our employees and for us as a company. A culture of inclusion and diversity is crucial to foster innovation and creativity, and we also want to contribute to a sustainable society. Additionally, it can help attract highly qualified candidates looking for an organisation with the right values and culture.”