One of Australia's largest companies will offer pet "bereavement leave" to thousands of employees: employees will receive two days of paid "bereavement leave" if their pet dies. In addition, employees can take two days of "emergency leave" if their pet becomes sick and requires urgent medical attention.

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According to the "Daily Mail" report on May 4, this company is the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, one of the largest companies in the country. Commonwealth Bank is Australia's largest commercial bank, founded in 1912.

According to Australia’s 2009 Fair Work Act, the carer’s leave or compassionate leave that employees are eligible for is strictly speaking only related to human family members. Employers can make arrangements such as “paternity leave” Provide more existing leave entitlements, such as care leave or compassion leave, in Employees can also take time off if an immediate family member dies, but there is no mention of family pets in the employee rights policy.

Report According to reports, an anonymous employee of the bank broke the news that the bank will introduce two days of paid leave every year to respond to the death of a pet or medical emergency. Although Commonwealth Bank is not obliged to provide employees with time off when a pet requires urgent care or dies, it has extended employee leave benefits to pets.

Fair Work Australia lawyer Horner said denying employees time to make time for the death of a pet could have dire consequences. "Rejecting any form of leave can have a huge impact on employee productivity, trust, and longevity," she wrote in 2021. "It can undermine years of employee loyalty by exposing a business to an uncaring, callous attitude."< /p>

But this measure is suspected to be an act of appeasement by the Commonwealth Bank for the upcoming layoffs.

On the same day the New Deal was proposed,Commonwealth Bank has just announced a new round of large-scale layoffs, mainly for its overseas employees in India.

This week, Commonwealth Bank announced a profit of A$5.15 billion for the half year to December 2022. Although profits in the second half of the year are expected to be higher, the bank quickly announced layoff plans.

Commonwealth Bank has cut more than 40 jobs in Sydney last month. Since 2021, the bank has cut more than 500 jobs overseas.

Julia Angrisano, national secretary of the Australian Financial Sector Union, said moving jobs overseas was an act of naked greed. "This is nothing more than a naked grab for profits at the expense of the staff who kept the bank running during the epidemic and during the economic reopening after the epidemic." Julia Angrisano said, "Employees contributed to the bank's record profits Contributed, but the bank’s reward was to kick them out the door.”