http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...44-421,00.html

Union's menstrual leave push

By Stefanie Balogh
February 11, 2005
From:


UNIONS are negotiating a landmark industrial relations claim at Toyota, demanding female workers with menstrual pain be granted access to an extra 12 paid days off a year.

If the nationwide claim is successful, it would be the first time manufacturing employees would have special menstrual leave in addition to their existing sick leave provisions. Australian Manufacturing Workers Union federal secretary Ian Jones said it was common sense that workplaces should accommodate the individual circumstances of their employees.

That's crazy!!!!!!

I know there are some women that suffer big time but surely it should just be done on an individual basis otherwise everyone will be skiving!!!

That'll do wonders for sexual equality in the workplace

wow i think that is great for real sufferers, I being one of them people ring in sick with colds and flu etc and its accepted but if you say i have period pains they think eh take a pain killer you'll be ok! I wish, roll on the menopause.

What about the poor bl**dy sod that has to live in the same house? More perhaps?

A loud hi-fi and a big pair of headphones

Your estimation of human nature must be even lower than mine!

It did say that it would be done on an individual basis ("should accommodate the individual circumstances of their employees"), although how's that going to be done? Strap women to a pain-meter or something? "Now come on, it's not hurting that much, you'll just have to struggle on"...

As for "some women", I would say "most women". Maybe worth a poll?

There would be no need for it at all, if women stuck to hairdressing and cleaning jobs

Many years ago,(well about 10 actually) I worked at a software company in Dublin, and my QA engineer was a young woman, who regularly took 3 days off a month for period pains. She had a doctors note and everything saying she had it worse than most women which required heavy painkillers, and I don't doubt she did have it bad.

But the bitching and back-stabbing she got for basically getting another free 36 days holiday a year were unreal. The funny thing was too, it was the women that were the nastiest about it.

My only problem with her was purely practical. She was never there when I needed her to check stuff, so I ended up with a second 'part-time' QA guy.

So can you imagine if the whole female workforce were absent from work for 36+20=56 days a year? They'd need to hire temps to fill in for them (and the temps I assume wouldn't get the same priviliges).

Cheers,
JTL

Have to admit, that as a man one cannot fully comprehend the pain and discomfort that women go through. Its definately one of the most unfunniest of the Good Lord's Jokes.

I came from a houseful of sisters and I know that for a couple of them, the pain could be agonising,( my eldest sister took me aside once when I got my head bitten off once from one sister then another , and explained the reason to me, Lol!).

To be honest, I think that that's the reason why women are more resilient to pain etc, as they know that they cannot just curl up feeling sorry for themselves whenever they feel well unwell, and they need to get on with life, men on the other hand, simple cold, and their looking around for their mums to baby them!

Time to duck for going on the other side!

You have, perhaps inadvertently, highlighted the difference between ordinary sick leave and menstrual sick leave. It is, as you said, regular (well, more regular in some cases than others) and therefore it can be planned around, just as people's holidays can be. If the (mostly male no doubt) management teams of this world were prepared to admit its seriousness (and let's face it, they mostly live with women so they really ought to appreciate it) then we might see a proper attempt to integrate it into work schedules. After all, no doubt they manage to plan their own work quite happily around their regular Wednesday afternoon golfing slots (or whatever).

(I'm not getting at you, JTL; it's the system that's the problem.)

well, obviously it's different for all women but I find that it's varies from month to month. I think it is rare that you will find women who are debilitated every single month but my god, do I sympathise with those who are :scared:.

Has the world gone mad?
Every sympathy to sufferers (and their spouses, kids and anyone else in the line of fire!). But I am sure Toyota workers of all gender get certain sick days a year. 20? They can use them surely. It's not as if they have none. I agree with others that this will not help equality in the workplace. An employer faced with the prospect of employing a women with ?32 days sickness entitlement v. a man with just ?20. Crazy!

Andrew

Do you really want to drive a car put together by a woman during her period?....

I see a couple of problems with this though.

First of all, my manager (and my QA engineers manger) was a middle aged man, and he had the most enlightened attitude to my QA engineers suffering, compared to all the other mostly female managers.I think thats where the bitchiness of the other female employees came from. So its not always an 'us' and 'them' scenario.

The reason my manager was so "enlightened", was because he got terribly embarrased everytime the young attractive QA engineer started to discuss her menstrual problems with him, so to avoid the discussion, he basically came up with the 3 days off a month solution. So, maybe not that enlightened then

But that is the crux of the problem. To plan around this, as you suggest, you have to get every womans errrmmm, timings, shall we say. I can't see that working in meetings, when the works being dished out, "hands up all those who reckon their periods gonna be next week".

Cheers,
JTL