Retailer offers paid leave for women taking IVF treatment

The Asda supermarket chain is to give paid leave to female staff undergoing fertility (IVF) treatment. And the company says men whose partners are having treatment will also be entitled to time off.

Asda says women can have up to five days' paid leave to cover time in hospital and recuperation while men will have up to one-and-a-half days' paid leave to give their partner support.

The supermarket believes it is the first major employer to take the step which will apply to all of its 129,000 workers regardless of length of service or whether they are full or part time.

Workers will be entitled to claim the time off on up to three occasions. If they require more time they can arrange shift-swaps with colleagues, have unpaid leave or take holiday entitlement.

Asda's head of human resources, David Smith, said: "Like most of our flexible schemes, this one started on the shop floor. There was a big increase in the number of colleagues asking for support through their fertility treatment."

He added: "Our colleagues didn't want to rely on calling in sick to cope with such an important procedure so they asked for our help."