In 2022, the National Health and Medical Research Centre was recognised and awarded as meeting the Best Practice standards.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) is Australia's peak body for supporting health and medical research; for developing health advice for the Australian community, health professionals and governments; and for providing advice on ethical behaviour in health care and in the conduct of health and medical research.
NHMRC is committed to providing our staff with a safe, friendly and inclusive workplace. With almost 75% of our workforce women, becoming a breastfeeding friendly workplace and imbedding an inclusive, supportive and family-friendly workplace for parents returning to work is an important part of NHMRCs dedication to creating a healthy work-life balance for all employees.
First accredited as a Breastfeeding Friendly Workplace in January 2019, NHMRC has maintained accreditation each year and in 2022 was awarded best practise accreditation demonstrating our commitment to providing a supportive work environment that enables employees to balance family responsibilities with their work responsibilities.
NHMRC supports its employees to maintain breastfeeding after returning to paid work by providing the following:
• Paid maternity leave for up to 12 weeks full pay or 24 weeks half pay
• Supporting partner/primary caregiver leave up to 6 weeks
• Flexible working arrangements
• Part-time work arrangements
• Carers leave
• Purchased leave
• Private lockable facilities to breastfeed, with fridges for the storage of the expressed milk
• Carers room for parents and their children
• Lactation breaks for employees to breastfeed or express breastmilk
• Support through the Employee Assistance Program, and
• External support through such services as the Australian Breastfeeding Association