Setting the Standard: How AMC Is Raising the Bar on Family Leave

A Policy Born from Conviction, Not Obligation

When AMC developed its Family Policy under the SAWI (Support & Accelerate Women's Inclusion) project, in partnership with LLWB, AUB, and TELFER, and with the funding of US MEPI,  it did not do so because Lebanese law required it. It did so because the law falls critically short, and someone has to lead.

The result: AMC was recognized as one of the Top 3 Key Employers in Lebanon for the implementation of inclusive policies for mothers, fathers, and caregivers. But more than an award, this recognition reflects a deliberate philosophy, that a firm's greatest investment is in the human beings who carry it forward.

This article walks through what AMC's Family Policy actually contains, why it matters in the Lebanese context, and why its most pioneering element, Shared Parental Leave, deserves to become national law.

Where Lebanese Law Stands Today

To understand how far AMC's policy reaches, you need to understand the baseline it starts from.

Female employees in Lebanon are entitled to 10 weeks of paid maternity leave. Lebanon currently provides no statutory paternity leave, any leave granted to fathers is entirely at the employer's discretion. There is no statutory provision for shared parental leave in Lebanese labor law.

A draft law providing for three days of paternity leave was introduced and approved by the Council of Ministers in January 2018, but has not yet entered into force, pending enactment by the Lebanese Parliament. That was eight years ago.

The International Labour Organization sets a minimum of 14 weeks of maternity leave under Convention No. 183, meaning Lebanon's current 10-week entitlement already falls below the international standard. And short maternity leave could force women to choose between work and family, which is particularly consequential in Lebanon's deteriorating economic environment, where households are increasingly reliant on two incomes.

AMC's Family Policy does not just fill these gaps for its own employees. It offers a blueprint for what Lebanese employers, and ultimately the Lebanese state, should be doing.

What AMC's Family Policy Actually Provides

For Mothers: Enhanced Maternity Leave

AMC's maternity policy goes far beyond the legal minimum. Mothers are guaranteed full salary during their leave, with all benefits, health insurance, annual leave accrual, seniority, and entitlement to bonuses, fully protected throughout. Work contact during maternity leave is strictly prohibited: any emergency communication must first pass through management and then be approved by the mother herself, who sets the time and channel.

Upon return, mothers benefit from a reduced workload transition period, hybrid work flexibility for up to 12 months post-birth, continued enrolment in AMC's learning and development programme, and a customized performance assessment that accounts for the career break. A dedicated satisfaction survey tracks whether the policy is actually being implemented as written.

For breastfeeding mothers, AMC provides a private, lockable lactation room, shielded from view, regularly sanitized, and equipped with seating, electric plugs, and refrigerator space reserved for milk storage. It is not a converted bathroom and not an afterthought. Lactation use takes priority over any other booking: the room is released on request, without explanation and without negotiation. Lactation breaks of up to 30 minutes are fully paid, not deducted from annual leave, and available for up to 12 months after the birth. Where multiple breastfeeding employees are on staff simultaneously, a scheduling system ensures every mother has access when she needs it. This is not a courtesy, it is a written, enforceable right under AMC's policy.

AMC also extends full maternity rights to mothers who adopt, and provides paid bereavement leave, separate from annual leave, for employees who experience miscarriage (3 days), stillbirth (5 days), or neonatal death (10 days). These provisions exist nowhere in Lebanese law.

For Fathers: Paternity Leave and Flexibility

While Lebanese law offers fathers nothing by statute, AMC provides 5 days of fully paid paternity leave, plus up to 7 days of remote work flexibility during the first three months after the birth, all with the same job protection, salary protection, and benefits continuity guaranteed to mothers.

The same bereavement provisions apply to fathers whose partners experience pregnancy loss, and adoption leave is extended equally to fathers as it is to mothers.

For Caregivers: Carer's Leave

Recognizing that caregiving responsibilities extend beyond newborns, AMC's policy covers employees caring for elderly parents, sick spouses, siblings, and dependent children. Up to 5 dedicated carer's days per year, outside of annual leave, are available, with 3 paid and 2 unpaid, and full protection from any penalty or threat of job loss for taking them.

The Most Pioneering Element: Shared Parental Leave

The most forward-thinking component of AMC's Family Policy is one that does not exist anywhere in Lebanese labor legislation: Shared Parental Leave.

Under AMC's policy, if both spouses work at AMC, either parent can transfer leave days to the other. A mother can transfer days from her maternity leave balance to her husband to extend his paternity leave. Equally, a father can transfer his days to his wife to extend her maternity leave. Remote work days are transferable in the same way. Both parties complete a formal Shared Parental Leave form, submitted to HR for management approval.

AMC has also committed, as a next step, to extending this mechanism beyond its own walls, by drafting Shared Parental Leave collaboration agreements with partner organizations, allowing employees to transfer leave days to their spouses working at other companies. This cross-employer shared leave model is rare even globally, and would position AMC as a genuine regional pioneer.

The logic behind shared parental leave is supported by decades of international evidence. When fathers are empowered and encouraged to take meaningful leave, outcomes improve across the board: stronger child development indicators, better maternal mental health, higher female workforce retention, and more equal division of domestic responsibilities in the long term.

Why This Should Be Lebanese Law

Lebanon is overdue for a fundamental reform of its parental leave framework. The facts are stark:

Lebanese law currently allows women 10 weeks of paid maternity leave, four short of the ILO minimum, and gives fathers nothing at all. Moreover, parents have no mechanism to divide leave between them according to what their family actually needs.

A country rebuilding its economy, attempting to retain skilled professionals, and committed to gender equity cannot afford a labor framework that treats parenthood as a maternal problem rather than a shared human experience. The practical consequences are visible: talented women leave the workforce after childbirth, not because they want to, but because the system makes staying impossible. Fathers are denied the right to be present at one of the most important moments of their families' lives.

AMC's experience demonstrates that implementing robust parental leave is operationally viable for a professional services firm, even a mid-sized one operating in Lebanon's economic environment. The internal mechanics are not complicated. What is required is the will to prioritize people over convention.

We call on Lebanese legislators to act on the 2018 draft paternity leave law that has sat unenacted for eight years, and to go further: to introduce a statutory shared parental leave framework that gives both mothers and fathers the right to care, and gives families the flexibility to decide how that care is divided. The private sector has shown it can be done. Now the state must follow.

A Commitment We Live By

At AMC, this policy is not a document. It is a practice. Every provision described above is implemented, monitored through satisfaction surveys, and reviewed for compliance. Our recognition as a Top 3 Employer for Women's Inclusion in Lebanon is meaningful to us not as a trophy, but as accountability, a public commitment to standards we hold ourselves to every day.

We invite other Lebanese employers to adopt similar frameworks. And we invite policymakers to visit, review, and replicate what we have built, as the foundation for a national standard that Lebanese working families deserve.

Prepared by AMC People and Culture Team

Sources: AMC Family Policy (2024–2025); SAWI Project — Medium Publication on Parental Leave in Lebanon; Lebanese Labor Law Articles 28 & 29 (as amended by Law No. 207, May 2000); Carnegie Endowment — Lebanon's Maternity Leave Gap (October 2025); Business & Human Rights Resource Centre — Lebanon Workplace Equality Report; ILO Convention No. 183 on Maternity Protection.