Twitter's Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has made a number of changes to the platform and the policies of the company since taking over the reins last year. The latest change is the reduction of parental leave from 20 weeks - roughly 140 days - to just 14 days, according to internal company documents cited by New York Times.
The change will affect employees who work in those states in the US that do not have a paid leave policy.
"New: Twitter used to offer employees 20 weeks of paid parental leave. That's being changed to whatever is required by law in the region where the employees work, along with a "top up" of two weeks of leave, per internal docs," NYT reporter Kate Conger said in a tweet.
As per a report in New York Post, there is no federal law in the United States mandating paid parental leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act, however, allows for "unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons'' for up to 12 weeks for certain employees. However, it is to be noted that there are 12 states that provide paid family and medical leave of some kind. Employees are permitted to take up to eight weeks of paid leave in California under state law. Both New York and New Jersey permit up to 26 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in addition to 12 weeks of paid leave.
Several people bashed the billionaire for reducing the leave as it will give mothers a little time to rest, recover and spend time with their newborns in many US states.
"So let me get this straight... as an ex-Tweep who lives in MO - a state that doesn't require employers to give any time off - I would only get 2 weeks under this new policy? Also, how does this not breach the acquisition deal of protecting benefits for 1 year after close?" said a user.
"Shame on Twitter. Only two weeks of paid parental leave?! This is not the way," commented a second person.
A third person added, "As someone who got to take advantage of Twitter's 20 weeks for parental leave, i can say that being with my family during that time was a profoundly meaningful experience. Taking it away is _extremely_ sh****."
"This is how gender pay gap is entrenched. A woman now has the option of either returning to work two weeks after giving birth or taking a long, unpaid break from work. 20 weeks of paid parental leave minimizes that," noted another user.
"Only a company facing bankruptcy does this," said a person.
Another user added, "You can't be obsessed with declining birthrates and then incentivize your employees to not have children."
