ANZ introduces six weeks’ paid gender affirmation leave

ANZ Bank has introduced six weeks of paid gender affirmation leave, and up to 12 months’ unpaid leave, to its employees in New Zealand and Australia.

The leave will cover circumstances where staff are taking steps to affirm their gender, including social, medical, and legal gender affirmation.

ANZ NZ Head of Talent and Culture, Michelle Russell, said ANZ was committed to the LGBTIQ+ community and creating an inclusive workplace.

“We believe in the strength of a diverse and inclusive workplace and the backgrounds, perspectives and experiences of our staff play a huge part in this.

“Everyone at ANZ should be free to be themselves at work, when you support gender diversity you embrace the experiences of everyone,” Ms Russell said.

The six weeks of paid leave will mean that people who are affirming their gender do not need to exhaust their annual or sick leave entitlements while also easing some of the financial pressures.

ANZ said there are many ways individuals may affirm their gender and the purpose of gender affirmation leave is to support employees through their own journey.

Gender affirming processes could include:

• Social affirmation (for example: adopting the dress and style of presentation that better aligns with their gender identity and expression, changing their pronouns and/or name).

• Medical affirmation (for example: surgery, hormone therapy or both, to attend medical appointments, rest and recover from medical procedures).

• Legal affirmation (for example: legally changing their name and/or gender marker on personal identification documents e.g. passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, bank card).

Under ANZ’s leave policy, periods of gender affirmation leave will not break continuity of employment. During a period of paid leave, annual leave, long service leave and sick leave continue to accrue.

ANZ employs more than 40,000 staff globally and is a signatory to the UN Standards of Conduct for Business Tackling Discrimination against LGBTI People.

ANZ’s LGBTIQ+ employee resource network ANZ Pride is made up of more than 2000 LGBTIQ+ staff and allies across 15 countries. For more than 15 years ANZ Pride has advocated for the rights of LGBTIQ+ staff and customers across all our geographies including policy and process changes, inclusive system updates, education and awareness, and community engagement.

For media enquiries contact: Briar McCormack 021 2801173

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