Menstrual Leave.

I'm well aware. I don't advocate punishment. I advocate meritocracy. In most instances an individual who works less will have less worth to an employer than someone who works more.

I'd suggest this scheme would be more damaging to a career than having a couple of kids and taking modest maternity leave due to the regularity.

I think any such scheme should be voluntary and perhaps allow for SSP. This allows women to choose how to utilise it (fully, partially, tactically) with full knowledge as to how it may hinder or affect their careers.

Why should I take a pay cut for my biology? It's not like I can just say "don't fancy having a period this month, I think I'll skip it." Nor can I just take stronger medication without risking overdose.

Posted from TSR Mobile

And people wonder why modern femisnm is a figure of ridicule...

Last period I had I took two 30/500 cocodamol, the ones I now take for the pain for my fibromyalgia and my mum takes for her arthritis, and my dad for sciatica, and then I threw them up because I was in too much pain.
But you can't just take more, because they had started to be absorbed and if I'd gotten liver issues from too much paracetamol then I'd have had even more time off.
Then I nearly passed out into the toilet, and my dad had to pretty much lift me into the car to get me home and then put me to bed.

So unless you're suggesting some women (and it will be women in my situation who this would apply to) get some IV painkillers and shoot them up at their desks before going back to work, I don't think you thought this through at all.

Why should men get paid less for the same amount of work just because they don't have ovaries? It's not like they can grow some.

Taking an unpaid day or two off and making up the work another time is what plenty of working women already do, paying women to have periods only serves to decrease their career prospects as employers won't fancy paying their employees for not working.

They don't get paid less. The number of women with periods that are debilitatingly painful is actually quite small. Periods are a nuisance for most women.

Something like this would benefit women who have very painful periods and it wouldn't harm men at all.

If the time off was unpaid, why should I have to make up the work?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Quoted in the hope that people actually see it.

The fact is that there is no telling who these women are and as such it is so open to abuse that it would be a massive deterrent for employers employing women.Making up the work would be up to the women, as by taking a day or two off they would probably have to make up the hours.

It's not even time off that this company is talking about - it's flexible working and having a policy that states up front that using flexitime to work around period pains is acceptable.

Completely unreasonable to expect employers to give leave to women every month like yourself when a tablet will solve the problem which is what you're doing now.

What ARE you talking about?

Why should men get paid less for the same amount of work just because they don't have ovaries? It's not like they can grow some.

Taking an unpaid day or two off and making up the work another time is what plenty of working women already do, paying women to have periods only serves to decrease their career prospects as employers won't fancy paying their employees for not working.

Painkillers don't always work..

How are men getting paid less?

As someone mentioned, why are you making up the work if you're not being paid for it anyway? It's either you are paid for it and then you make it up at a later date or you are just not paid for it.

I know what the policy in question is, but it seems that the debate has moved on from that, and on to should women have paid leave if they have painful periods.

Fine if you want to take unpaid leave...but imagine if something like the NHS where most of the workforce are women offered them leave for their periods every month. It's discriminatory to give it to one woman over another so it wouldn't work.

I think you've misunderstood.

Women can already take time off for painful periods. It's called sick leave. Excessive or regular sick leave is something that an employer can deal with as a disciplinary matter.

Which post exactly on this thread has someone advocated *additional* sick leave for period pain? I've only seen people welcoming the flexibility mentioned in the company in question and stating that it's perfectly understandable and acceptable for women to take sick leave for painful periods. And about a dozen people misunderstanding that and wittering on why additional sick leave for period pain isn't fair.

Because such a system is massively open to abuse.

I have said before, if you miss a day's pay, it's in your best interest to make up for it.

The option is available for all women, so how is it discriminatory?
A care giver in severe pain wouldn't be very useful.

Well I'm in NHS, majority of nurses in my unit are women, if they all took leave at same time the service would be very strained to say the least. Plus anyone could say they're in pain when they're not.

Sick leave is also open to abuse.

You previously suggested that the woman take unpaid leave and also make up for it. Doesn't make sense. She should only make up for it if she's being paid.