Sir Richard Branson announces one year paid paternity leave for Virgin employees

Sir Richard Branson has unveiled a new policy for Virgin Managementemployees which sees new parents granted one year parental leave with full pay.

The announcement comes after the British government introduced Shared Parental Leave legislation earlier this year, which grants new parents the ability to take up to 50 weeks a year between them.

Not only will parents of newborn babies benefit from the new policy, but also parents who choose to adopt.

In a statement on the Virgin website, Branson said “If you take care of your employees they will take care of your business. That is a philosophy that has served us well for more than four decades, and is the foundation of everything we do at Virgin.”

Virgin Management CEO Josh Bayliss said the policy was a step forward for the company, saying “This is a ground-breaking move from Virgin Management, which demonstrates that the health and wellbeing of our people is at our core.”

Despite the positive reaction and the highly beneficial scheme for Virgin Management employees, there are several, key conditions and the policy is only set to initially benefit about 140 employees.