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High Flyers Supported In A Very Cool Qantas Parental Leave Scheme

High Flyers Supported In A Very Cool Qantas Parental Leave Scheme
Businesswoman with suitcase in airport
Martin Barraud via Getty Images
Businesswoman with suitcase in airport

Australians neglecting their frequent flyer points while taking parental leave from work will no longer need to worry about losing their silver, gold or platinum memberships.

On Tuesday, Qantas announced a Status Hold initiative which means new parents taking at least six months off work will be able to 'hold' their Qantas loyalty membership status for up to 18 months.

Previously, members who regularly flew with the airline on business, racking up a massive amount of points to get to a higher membership level, would return to work after parental leave to find their membership had dropped down a level.

Qantas Loyalty CEO said the airline's loyalty system wanted to recognise the loyalty of their members and support modern Australian families.

“We recognise that all families are a bit different, so Status Hold will apply to men and women and those welcoming a foster or adopted child," Grant said in a statement.

Qantas' latest initiative isn't the first excellent scheme encouraging Australian men and women to take time away from their careers to parent their children full time.

In February, a rail freight company Aurizon launched an initiative to 'incentivise' fathers parenting full time.

Under the company's new paid parental leave scheme a woman returning to work in the first year of having a child while her partner takes on full time care will receive 150 percent of her pay for up to 26 weeks. A man taking on full time care of the child will receive 50 percent of his pay for up to 26 weeks.

Aurizon's Managing Director and CEO Lance Hockridge is a member of the Male Champions of Change program, which unites powerful men in big businesses around the country to improve gender equality.

Former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who founded the program seven years ago, told The Huffington Post Australia that Hockridge will give any business leader interested in the bold parental leave scheme all the details they need to copy the initiative.

“When you bring some of the most influential leaders in the country together on a complex problem they become much bolder in the collective and they shamelessly rip off each other’s ideas," Broderick told HuffPost Australia.

"He’s written to every Champion of Change with the policy and if they want to rip it off he’ll send them the data to do so."

Keep 'em coming.

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