At G8 Education’s AGM today, almost 30% of shareholders stood against the board’s recommendation by voting in support of a resolution giving G8 Education’s 10,000 workers access to paid parental leave.

This was a world first shareholder resolution on parental leave, and the first workers rights’ resolution to be voted on at an Australian company AGM since 2019. The resolution asked G8 Education to follow WGEA’s best practice process for creating a paid parental leave policy.

96% of G8 Education’s 10,000 employees are women.

The resolution was filed by SIX, a share trading platform that combines ethical investing and shareholder advocacy, on behalf of 103 shareholders.

SIX Campaigns Manager, Phoebe Rountree, said: ‍

“We had expected to see the board embrace this shareholder request. Instead we had to escalate this issue to be voted on at the AGM!”

“It just doesn’t pass the pub test that a childcare company wouldn’t support its workers to look after their own children. It’s now clear it doesn’t pass the shareholder test either, who have made it clear that a paid parental leave policy is good for workers and for the company.”

“It was incredible to be in the room when the high vote result was announced. We are hopeful that now the board will see how seriously their shareholders take gender equality and take action.”  

“Women taking unpaid time to care for newborns and young families is a big contributor to the gender pay gap. The vast majority of G8 Education’s employees are women. Offering paid parental leave is a practical step towards gender equality. ”

This campaign had the support of the Independent Education Union (ACT/NSW branch), who called on G8 Education to show they value early childhood educators through paid parental leave. SIX delivered a petition on behalf of the branch to G8 Education’s executive.

In countries where shareholder activism is more common, a vote over 15% would be strong enough to prompt a company to start taking action. In countries like the UK, a company is legally required to respond to votes above 20% against the recommendation of the Board.

With 28.8% vote today, shareholders will be looking expectantly for G8 Education to take action now for their thousands of employees who are women, and their families.

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Photo: Phoebe Rountree (SIX), Brad Hayes (Federal secretary, IEU Australia) and Karen McLeod (Ethical Investment Advisors) with the petition from union members.

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