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First Union Named Among '100 Best Companies for Working Mothers' CHARLOTTE - Working Mother magazine cited First Union as an "unabashedly parent-centered banking giant" in its list of "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers," adding the company to the list for the 4th year. The award recognizes First Union for its child care support, its flexible work practices, advancement of women and family-friendly benefits. First Union will honor the 100 winners as a top sponsor of the gala awards dinner in New York on Sept. 23 during the 1999 Work Family Congress. "By honoring the nation's top 100 companies for working mothers, we want to encourage employers everywhere to create the kind of work environments that will build strong families," said Don R. Johnson, head of First Union's Human Resources Division. "We are committed to making First Union one of the best workplaces in America not only for working mothers, but for every employee." In recognizing First Union's support for child care, the magazine noted the addition of FUNKids, a child care center for 110 children in Philadelphia, acquired through First Union's merger with CoreStates Financial Corp. First Union also has one of America's largest on-site corporate child care centers, the First Union Leslee Lloyd Child Development Center in Charlotte, which has capacity for 570 children. Managed by Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the center is located at the company's 8,000-staff Customer Information Center. First Union also operates a back-up care facility for 54 children in Philadelphia called Kids First and a full-service center for 72 children in Roanoke, Va. In acknowledging First Union's advancement of women, the magazine noted that 37 percent of the company's top-earning employees are female. Scheduling flexibility is another key category of the award. Working Mother lauded First Union's PTO bank, which replaced a time-off system of separate vacation and sick days and gives every employee 10 annual days of family care for tending to an ill spouse, parent or child. "First Union's strategy must be working," the report says. "Close to 70 percent of the bank's employees said in a 1998 survey that their work schedules offered enough flexibility to meet personal and family needs." For parents who have beginning readers, First Union offers a benefit called Reading First. The free kit for employees includes a parent's guide to encourage enthusiasm for reading, a resource list, cassette tape, reading journal and storybook. It's part of the company's Reading First program, which encourages employees to read as volunteers in schools. First Union also offers a 10-part parent education series, "Parents At Work: Building Strong Families," delivered through classroom sessions, and all over the East Coast through the company's Employee Television Network. One of the company's most popular programs is its "time-away-for- education" policy, which gives employees four hours of paid time per month to volunteer in schools and education programs. Last year, 45 percent of First Union's roughly 67,000 workers took advantage of the policy to volunteer. First Union has a variety of other programs to help employees manage their work and personal lives:
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