WOMEN FRIENDLY POLICIES – CARE COUNTRY OFFICES IN ASIA

October 2012

Policies addressing Women’s practical needs

  1. Flexible Office Time (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka)
  • Staff members work 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week;
  • Office is open for 10 hours (eg. 08:00 to 18:00); Staff members are free to come and leave office at their convenient time and complete the 8 hours (eg. A staff can come at 9:00 and leave at 17:00 or come at 08:00 and leave at 16:00)
  • Office can also declare core hours (eg. 10:00 to 16:00) during that time all staff are expected to be present in office.
  1. Working from home (India, Sri Lanka)
  • Staff works from home and completes on-going assignments
  • Prior approval is required from line manager for the day of ‘working from home’
  1. Compensatory time-off for working/travelingduringholidays and weekends (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan)
  • Staff can take time-off during a week to compensate for working or traveling on a government declared holiday or weekend.
  • The compensatory time-off is to be taken within two weeks of the working day to be compensated.
  1. Maternity and Paternity leave (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
  • (For women) At least 90 days of maternity leave; can be distributed before and after child birth.
  • (For men) At least 10 days of paternity leave; can be taken over a period of 6 months.
  1. Family/Dependent’s sick leave (Afghanistan, India, Nepal)
  • Staff can take leave from their allocated sick leave to attend sick person (dependent) in the family.
  1. Nursing time-off ( Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
  • Lactating mothers take time-off to nurse their babies (up to 12 months of age)
  1. Hospital expenses for Child birth (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan)
  • Hospitalization allowance (either a fixed amount or a percentage of total cost) is given to female staff for child delivery (in some cases limited to two children only)
  1. Cost coverage for travel with young children and attendants (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
  • Travel expenses of young child(ren) and their care-givers are covered by CARE when accompanyingwomen staff in official travel.
  1. Child care facilities/allowance
  • Some COs have crèche or day-care center at office premises (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan)
  • An allowance is given to women staff for hiring proper baby-care until the child is one-year of age, if the child care facilities cannot be made available. (Bangladesh)
  1. Allowance for safe home in remote posting (Afghanistan, Bangladesh)
  • Additional housing allowance (also known as field allowance) for staff who are deployed away from home (in remote location)
  1. Safe transportation for field travel or working late in office (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
  • CARE vehicle or safe rented vehicle are provided for women staff for field travel and working late hours in office

Policies addressing Women’s strategic needs

  1. Affirmative action for recruitment women (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
  • Encouraging women to apply for job announcements
  • Using women network to search for applicants
  • Informing women candidates about women friendly policies of CARE
  • Compulsory to have women in the short-list of applicants
  • Women in the interview panel
  • Preference for women when male competitor is of equal merit/qualification
  • Hire women for some targeted positions
  1. Retention strategy for talented/potential women (Afghanistan, Bangladesh)
  • Keeping a pool of retrenched women staff and inviting them for short-term positions or for interviews in long-term positions
  • Provide interim assignments to talented women staff between closing of current contract and opening of new position. The retained staff is required to compete in new job openings.
  1. Capacity building program for women staff (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan)
  • In-house program for potential junior level or mid-level women staff to groom them for more higher level positions.
  1. Internship program for women (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India)
  • Young graduates of Universities are hired as Interns for 6 to 10 months. They can compete for regular positions in CARE after completion of internship.
  1. Zero Tolerance for Sexual Harassment (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka)
  • A mechanism is in place to report sexual harassment incident.
  • Immediate investigation takes place on reporting of an incident.
  • Appropriate action taken upon submission of the investigation report.