Two Green councilors want a special work reference for city employees with period pains. That causes criticism.
Two local councilors of the Greens think that municipal employees should be able to be exempted from work if they have menstrual problems.
Is menstruation a taboo subject? Yes, think the Zurich Greens. And women who are regularly absent from work because of severe menstrual problems are disadvantaged depending on the employer, says city parliamentarian and co-group leader Selina Walgis. She knows women whose wages have even been reduced. That is why many of those affected go to work despite severe pain, although they are hardly fit or take strong medication.
Walgis has now submitted a proposal together with her party colleague Anna-Béatrice Schmalz: City employees with regular severe period problems – including trans and non-binary people – should be able to be exempted from work for one to five days a month with pay. Those affected should be able to take sick days or paid vacation “without major hurdles” without being stigmatized as a result. The city council is asked to start a corresponding pilot test and to scientifically examine the “optimal framework conditions”.
Employees can now stay at home if they are ill or submit a doctor’s certificate if they are going to be absent for a longer period of time. Selina Walgis explains why a special dispensation is needed for menstrual problems: “It’s not an individual problem, it affects many women.”
In order to avoid arbitrary dispensations, however, those affected should still get a certificate from the doctor and seek to talk to their employer about their complaints. Walgis hopes that this will have a positive effect. Under no circumstances should the dispensation become a disadvantage. Therefore, it makes sense to carry out a pilot test. The municipal councilor does not believe that employees could take advantage of the new regulation.
“Don’t introduce a rule for every ailment”
The liberal councilor Yasmine Bourgeois considers the initiative to be “completely superfluous”. Even today you can have a doctor’s certificate issued if you have a medical problem. “You don’t have to introduce a separate rule for every indisposition,” she says. “What’s next? A dispensation for insomnia? Or lovesickness?”
The period, says Bourgeois, is not a taboo subject anyway. “That’s why it should also be possible to talk to the manager about it.” She assumes that a new regulation would be to the detriment of those affected. “If a woman takes five days off every month, she will be absent for a quarter of her working hours. Employers will then think twice about hiring another woman.”
In addition, municipal employees already have many advantages over the private sector. After all, SME employees would use their taxes to finance the “comfort zone” of the administrative staff. And she adds: “Interestingly, the Greens assume that major absences in administration would not be noticed. So many of these jobs are superfluous.”
Spain wants menstruating days off
Whether a menstrual leave helps affected women or rather stigmatizes them is controversial. The debate took place in Spain, for example: In May, the Spanish government passed a bill to Parliament that would allow women to take up to five days off per month. Spain would be the first European country with such a regulation.
In some Asian countries it is common for women to be able to take time off during their periods: it is two days in Indonesia and three in Taiwan. Japan has had such a law since 1947. But the number of women who actually take menstrual leave has fallen sharply in Japan. The now retired scientist Alice J. Dan from the Center for Research on Women and Gender in Chicago found in a study that women were worried that their careers could suffer if they took too many days off. And the Guardian concluded in a reportthat Japanese women regarded menstrual leave simply as a stigma.