SPAIN PASSED EUROPE’S FIRST PAID ‘MENSTRUAL LEAVE’ LAW

Fri 17 February 2023:

In a first for Europe, Spain just passed a law allowing women who experience very painful periods to take paid “menstrual leave” from work.

The bill on sexual and reproductive rights that the Parliament approved on Thursday is a part of a larger package that also permits anyone 16 years of age or older to seek an abortion or freely change their ID card’s gender.

For those who experience disabling periods, which can result in severe cramps, nausea, dizziness, and even vomiting, the law grants the right to a three-day “menstrual” leave of absence with the option of extending it to five days.

The leave requires a doctor’s note, and the public social security system will foot the bill.

The law states that the new policy will help combat the stereotypes and myths that still surround periods and hinder women’s lives.

Menstrual leave is part of sweeping new legislation introducing new reproductive rights. Under the new laws, Spain will also roll out free feminine hygiene products in certain public facilities, such as educational institutions and prisons.

But the road to Spain’s menstrual leave has been rocky. Politicians – including those within the ruling coalition – and trade unions have been divided over the policy, which some fear could backfire and stigmatise women in the workplace.

Worldwide, menstrual leave is currently offered only in a small number of countries including Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Zambia.

Italy flirted with the idea in 2016, proposing a bill that would have given three fully paid days off to workers who obtained medical certificates, but the proposal failed to progress before the parliamentary term ran out in 2018.

Some Socialists have voiced concern a menstrual leave could backfire against women by discouraging employers from hiring them.

“In the long term, it may be one more handicap that women have in finding a job,” Cristina Antoñanzas, deputy secretary of the UGT, a leading Spanish trade union, told Euronews Next when the draft bill was first unveiled.

“Because we all know that on many occasions we have been asked if we are going to be mothers, something that must not be asked and that men are not asked. Will the next step be to ask us if we have period pains?”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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