A Philip Morris Korea employee holds a sign promoting the company's policies that extend parental leave up to 18 weeks. / Courtesy of Philip Morris Korea

By Kim Hyun-bin

Philip Morris Korea announced that it has implemented a new parental leave policy to promote the welfare and work-life balance of its employees.

The company's new parental leave policy, which was implemented at the start of this year, goes beyond previous policies that only benefited biological parents, to include support for diverse forms of families raising children, such as adoptive parents and legal guardians.

According to the new policy, Philip Morris Korea will allow its employees to take up to 18 weeks (126 days) of paid parental leave for primary caregivers and up to eight weeks (56 days) of paid parental leave for secondary caregivers.

A primary caregiver is the main person responsible for the care of a newborn or newly adopted child, or a person having legal parental responsibility for the child, such as the child's legal guardian. A secondary caregiver is a person who is also responsible for the child but is not the primary caregiver.

In Korea, employees are legally entitled up to 90 days of maternity leave and 10 days of paternity leave following the birth of a child. Under the new parental leave policy implemented by Philip Morris Korea, if the primary caregiver happens to be a female employee, they are entitled to 36 more days of parental leave than the 90 days legally required, and if the secondary caregiver happens to be a male employee, they are entitled to 46 more days of parental leave than the 10 days required by law.

"The new parental leave policy is evidence of Philip Morris International's commitment to diversity and inclusion," Philip Morris Korea Director of People & Culture Praveen Upadhyay said. "We will do our best to support the work-life balance of our employees ― our most important asset."