Every day, the correspondents’ club describes how the same current event is illustrated in two countries.
While a law to establish menstrual leave is currently being studied by the Spanish parliament, other countries have already implemented this right for some time.
For example, in Indonesia, such a leave of one to two days off per month was granted to female workers by a 2003 law, which was in fact an update of a 1948 law, i.e. say three years after Indonesia’s declaration of independence. Originally, the law mentioned the following for female workers: “Any woman can benefit from two days of paid leave per month (…) if she cannot do her job.”
A law wanted by the Indonesian people and which appeared with the aim of protecting workers, both men and women. This law was modified under the mandate of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the country’s first female president, in the context of negotiations between employers and labor movements and unions. From now on, the application of menstrual leave is based on an agreement between the employee on the one hand if she feels pain and the company’s collective agreements on the other. Some women’s rights NGOs see this policy as protecting women’s menstrual and reproductive health. In practice, others denounce the fact that some companies sometimes allow only one day of menstrual leave, while others ignore the law altogether.
In Japan, a right enshrined a long time ago but little used
In Japan, a country often perceived as reluctant to give special rights to women, menstrual leave was also introduced a long time ago: it is found in article 68 of the labor code, the first version of which dates back to 1947. In its current wording, it specifies that employers must accept requests for leave because of extremely painful rules that make work difficult. So being absent for several hours or several days a month because of unbearable menstruation has been a right for 75 years in Japan, and in fact it was also possible before the war. At that time, the work environment for women was terribly bad, the toilets dirty and we didn’t sell sanitary protection like today. Working while menstruating could therefore be very complicated, even dangerous. This right to menstrual leave has remained and is valid for all types of employment, full-time fixed contract, fixed-term contract, part-time or temporary. So the employer is obliged to accept and should not require proof such as a medical certificate. Nor can he limit the exercise of this right.
So much for the ideal. In reality, in practice, almost no one uses this right anymore. According to statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Health, in 2020, only 0.9% of working women used this menstrual leave. But it was much earlier. At the time of the peak, in 1965, about 26% of working women used this right. Paradoxically, the improvement in the comfort of life and the 1986 law on equality between men and women at work have worked against this right, which is granted only to women and which they find it more difficult to claim. Then, the law does not specify whether it is a paid leave or not, so it is at the discretion of the employers. Most women take painkiller or endure, or else keep the fact that they are menstruating and take a paid day off instead. It should be noted that this right to menstrual leave is granted to working women, but not to schoolgirls, high school girls or students who would nevertheless like to be able to take advantage of it.