Australian fashion brand DISSH under fire for giving staff with children an extra 2 weeks of paid annual leave

Australian fashion brand DISSH has come under fire for changes to its paid parental leave program, with some people claiming the new policy is unfair to its child-free workers.

Earlier this year, the retailer announced it would be expanding its paid parental leave programme to offer parents of children under 12 an extra two weeks of paid annual leave, on top of the four weeks all staff are already entitled to.

Established by Queenslander Maree Henry in 2001 and later taken on by her daughter Lucy Henry-Hicks, the popular fashion retailer has two WA stores located in Claremont and Karrinyup in Perth.

The female-founded company says the policy is designed to support working parents manage school pick-ups, sicknesses and important school events and help close the financial gap facing women in the workforce, arguing that “ambition and motherhood are not opposing paths”.

“This is how we modernise works. This is how we raise the standard,” the brand said in an Instagram post.

The brand has garnered a heap of praise online for its new policy, with one person commenting: “This is supporting real life outside work which is what actually builds strong teams”.

“Love this! Being a mother and having a career shouldn’t come at the expense of one another,” another person raved.

But not everyone is convinced, with others being quick to question what the policy means for those without children.

“What about women that can’t have children and don’t want to,” one person commented, while another wrote: “That’s special treatment and completely unfair to those who work hard and don’t have children”.

Others highlighted the difficulty other small businesses would face if they implemented such a policy.

“How do you think a small business can afford this. Annual leave is not free it costs the employer. Productivity drops. Working is actually a good thing and lobbying for more flexible work hours and conditions would be far more beneficial and productive for everyone,” one person wrote.

Commenting on a TikTok video discussing the brand’s new policy, the official account for DISSH commented: “We hope this encourages broader conversations across industries. The more workplaces that prioritise real support, the better.”

The debate comes as Australian workplaces continue to explore and expand their parental leave benefits.

Almost one in five employers now offers gender-neutral paid parental leave to allow fathers to access the same entitlements as mothers, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Major employers including Deloitte, QBE, Medibank, ING, KPMG and Commonwealth Bank have also removed traditional “primary” and “secondary” carer labels from their parental leave policies.

While some companies have decided to expand their policies, about one in three of Aussie employers still offer no paid parental leave at all.

PerthNow has approached DISSH for further comment.