Buy now, pay later company Zip introduces paid leave for miscarriages

It’s one of the first to offer their employees, including male partners, bereavement leave and has called on other companies to do the same.

Buy now, pay later company Zip is one of the first companies in Australia to offer bereavement leave for miscarriages, including for partners.

It will enable grieving parents two weeks of paid leave following the loss of a pregnancy before 20 weeks. One-in-four pregnancies in Australia ends in miscarriage.

Anna Buber-Farovich, chief people officer at Zip, said the decision was inspired by New Zealand’s move to legislate parental bereavement leave earlier this year.

She has also been personally impacted by pregnancy loss, along with a quarter of Zip’s executive team.

“It was aimed at changing the conversation around pregnancy loss and miscarriages and normalising this conversation instead of it being a taboo topic and an uncomfortable thing that no one is talking about,” she told news.com.au.

Ms Buber-Farovich said while physical recovery from miscarriage is one thing, mental recovery is also “super important”.

“It goes back to mental recovery from this experience and if we don’t have conversations … I have seen in my community, folks who choose not to have the conversation and took quite a few years to recover from something as traumatic as pregnancy loss,” she said.

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Anna Buber-Farovich, chief people officer at Zip, has experienced her own pregnancy loss. Picture: Supplied

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Since announcing the policy, Ms Buber-Farovich said there has been an “amazing reaction” from employees reaching out to share their personal stories – and surprisingly the majority were men.

“It’s not only about changing the conversation for Zip and those impacted here. I would love to see other bigger companies following the lead in this space so we can have an impact on many other Australians and people around the world to find the support they need,” she said.

“If we do right thing, companies can have impact on thousands of lives across the world and would be awesome to have others come along and contribute to that change.”

Larry Diamond, chief executive officer at Zip, said the policy was vital to normalise pregnancy loss.

“We are a modern company and we want our staff to feel valued and supported; this means having policies that help them with big life events such as pregnancy loss,” he said.

“Hopefully, other Australian and international companies will follow Zip’s example and put in place similar steps to support their colleagues.”

The leave will now be available to all Zip employees who are part-time and full-time, irrespective of how long they have been with the company. It currently employs almost 700 people globally.

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New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduced paid bereavement leave for pregnancy loss into legislation. Picture: Robert Kitchin/AFP

For those that experience the loss of a pregnancy after 20 weeks, Zip’s parental leave policy gives 16 weeks paid leave for primary carers and four weeks paid leave for secondary carers.

Sam Payne, co-founder of early pregnancy loss support network The Pink Elephants, said it was encouraging to see a company understand the need for progressive policy change to support people through the very real grief of losing their baby to pregnancy loss.

“If we are to address the cultural change that is necessary to better support women and their partners through the death of their baby, we need to first validate their experience as real grief. Bereavement policy does that,” she said.

In March, New Zealand reportedly became the second country in the world to pass legislation giving mothers and their partners the right to three days paid leave following miscarriage or still birth.

“The bill will give women and their partners time to come to terms with their loss without having to tap into sick leave. Because their grief is not a sickness, it is a loss. And loss takes time,” Labour Party MP Ginny Andersen, who initiated the bill, said at the time.